The Silence is Broken
by MarionTheEvilLibrarian
Summary: A sequel to 'Silence is the Loudest Cry' you have to read that before this... After seven months of peaceful living, undetected, on earth SHIELD finally finds Loki. There is a new villian in this story and I wonder if SHIELD will be smart enough to ask for Loki's help or not. And how will Loki and Thor get along after their last meeting? It'll get Loki angsty, feels, and sadness.
1. Chapter 1

**The Silence is Broken**

**Author Note: For all who are reading this unaware: this is a sequel to "Silence is the Loudest Cry". You can't really just read one without the other so go back to the search bar and type in Silence is the Loudest Cry. Do it, I dare you – something cool will happen! **

**For all of you fantastic fans, you, I appreciate you all so much I decided that I would indeed write this sequel for you! Remember to 'favorite', 'follow', and 'review'. Be warned, updates will every other day to every three days instead of everyday this time soooo I hope you guys like it! For all who have read SITLC check the bottom for something I wanted to tell you guys…**

**Disclaimer: I own **_**nothing!**_

"Sir, he appears to be…on a date…" the SHIELD agent said quietly, slowly, and slightly awkwardly into the line on his wrist.

"_What do you mean, 'on a date'?" _Director Fury's voice crackled in his ear.

"I mean…he's with a woman. Should I approach him?"

"_No…just observe for now," _Fury replied after taking sufficient time to digest the information of _Loki _being on a _date _with a real human woman.

"Yes, sir," the agent said as sunk farther back into the shadows of the large library. They had first tracked Loki to Oswego, New York and then sent a lone agent to check the sighting to see if the information had been correct.

Not many people actually knew about Loki – his presence had been kept quite hush-hush in the government and the people who did see him had mostly, and unfortunately, either died or been too scared to say anything. Almost everyone in the whole world still didn't know anything about the second Asgardian god.

A bright laugh floated to the agents ears and he squinted his eyes, not sure he was seeing things correctly. It was the dead of night and Loki and a currently unnamed woman were sneaking across the lawn of the public library holding large metal trash can covers.

They were both trying – and failing – to control their laughter as they snuck towards the large stairs at the foot of the library. The woman tripped and Loki caught her before she fell and they both started into a large fit of uncontrollable laughter. When they finally got close enough for the agent to see…he wasn't sure what he was seeing: both were holding decorated trash can covers and put them on the stone lions on the steps.

They both ran back onto the grass but Loki grabbed the woman's wrist and pointed towards the lions. A spark of emerald light burst from his fingertips and hit the lions. Suddenly both lions got up and started dancing and the woman looked back at Loki, shrieking with laughter and tackled him to the ground half-yelling, half-trying to whisper, "Stop! Someone will see – ahahaha!"

"C'mon, c'mon!" Loki urged in the same whisper-yell and they sprinted towards an old red truck. Loki dove through the window and the woman laughed again.

"That's not fair!" the agent heard her laugh.

Was it possible? Was Loki actually…on a date?

GGGGGGGGGG

"Hey, do you remember when we first met?" Lillian asked.

Loki nodded, realized she couldn't see him from this position and said, "Of course. How could I forget? You ordered me two cheeseburgers and told me that I needed to gain some weight."

"Oh, that's not how I remember it!" Lillian laughed playfully as she scooted closer to Loki. They were lying, spoon position, on the couch watching the original Spider-Man movie.

"Oh really? How to you remember it?" he asked, tightening his arm around her small waist.

"Well, as I remember I came into the diner and you were sitting there looking like a bag of bones – hey, no interrupting!" she said as Loki growled in her ear. "Anyway, you totally tried to pick me up with, 'where am I?' so I told you where we were and bought you something to eat because I fall for that stuff all the time, and you know it!" She finished.

"Hm," Loki hummed, "I like my version better."

Lillian rolled her eyes, "Of course you do. How do you remember telling me who you really are, Loki?" She asked, using his name as extra emphasis.

"That is one of my fondest memories with you," Loki said, faking injury at her words. "You were so surprised…"

Lillian shook her head with a small laugh, "Whatever you say, now shhhh! This is my favorite part!"

Loki had been exceedingly lucky when he came to earth. He could have been found by anyone and he knew that. He had been so lucky as to have been found by Lillian. She was funny, witty, and even liked causing her own special brand of harmless mischief.

She had been completely furious with him when he had told her who he really was but…she heard him out. She listened to his side of the story and understood. It wasn't his fault – well, maybe it was – a little.

Now it had been six months together and they had moved into an apartment together. For a long time he couldn't sleep at night, too afraid he would be found, and even now he lapsed. He would start worrying that Odin would take him away from Lillian, or worse: that silly organization SHIELD would find him and take Lillian away from _him. _They had seemed like a ruthless organization and would do anything to get at Loki, even hurting Lillian. But every time he started worrying about anything from the past Lillian would be there to pull him back to his new, fantastic present life.

GGGGGGGGGG

Loki woke up and Lillian wasn't beside him. Normally it just meant that she was cooking breakfast, or out in town, or sometimes even working, but not this morning. Not after he had had another nightmare about SHIELD taking her away and…and, and torturing her.

Loki shot out of the bedroom like a bullet to find Lillian in the kitchen, cooking an egg. Loki rushed up behind her and grabbed her waste pulling her into him. "Don't leave me," he half sobbed.

She gently turned herself around in his grip and hugged him. She didn't say anything for a while but the silent message was there, '_I'm always here for you. I won't leave. I love you.'_ Lillian went up on her tippy-toes and kissed him, "Want to talk about it?"

Loki shook his head and sunk to the floor, taking Lillian with him. His stomach was sick with fear and hatred and old feelings that should have been long gone. "I think our eggs are burning, babe," Lillian said after a while.

Loki took a breath, smiled at Lillian and helped her up. "Sorry," he said, voice only slightly shaky.

"It's ok; the eggs can be saved," he appreciated how nonchalant she could be about it when it was over.

Loki's usual mischievous grin returned to his face, "I'm _so _relieved," he replied sarcastically as he gave her a kiss.

GGGGGGGGGG

Lillian laughed, care-free at whatever smart comment Loki had just said and smiled happily at Loki. How very lucky she was to have Loki. Sure, he had his flaws and his baggage but that's what made Loki, Loki. She'd be lying if she said she didn't come with flaws and baggage of her own.

"You have to eat it!" She said as she held up a forkful of burnt egg.

"I am _so_ not eating that," he replied playfully as he eyed the crispy critter. Just as he reached a hand over to take the fork the door to their apartment burst open and a dozen black suited, heavily weapon-ed men flooded into their living room and kitchen area.

Loki growled – not the cute, playful growls he made when they were cuddling, but a loud, menacing sound. And maybe only she heard it, but it sounded slightly scared, too. He shot out of his chair faster than should be possible, picked Lillian up, and put her behind him near the back of the kitchen as he faced the armored men.

"Stand down," barked a commander of some sort and then a man, slightly shorter than the armored men came into view. He wasn't wearing any armor but was obviously packing heat. "Mr. Odinson," he said.

Lillian could have sworn Loki bristled at the mention of his former life and she wanted to smack the condescending smirk right off the man's face. "Agent Coulsen," Loki replied, voice like shards of ice.

"Wait, Coulsen?" Lillian asked as she glanced warily at all the weapons in the room.

Loki merely nodded and Coulsen took a step forward to shake her hand, only to be warded off by one of Loki's more venomous glares, "Agent Coulsen. I work with –"

"SHIELD, yeah, yeah, I know. How are you alive?" Lillian interrupted impatiently. She was getting seriously freaked out by all the guns and the previously thought dead people. "Is he a zombie?" Lillian whispered in Loki's ear.

"No," Coulsen answered instead. "It seemed that Mr. Odinson's aim had been slightly off that day."

Lillian highly doubted that: for one, Loki _was_ a god and was pretty much perfect at _everything_. Two, she knew his favored weapon, aside from magic, was throwing daggers and there's no way someone with that fighting style could ever had bad aim. Thirdly, Loki had been currently under the control of the 'Other' and there was no way the 'Other' would have let Loki miss – which meant…Loki had purposely _not _killed this man. It fit; Loki had told her he hadn't directly killed many people throughout the whole Chitauri debacle. But, instead of saying all that, Lillian just said, "_Riiiiiight,"_

"What can we do for you?" Loki asked as he straightened up and leveled an icy glare at all the agents in their house.

"We need you to come with us," Coulsen said as he motioned for two agents to come over and escort Loki.

Loki was about to throw up a shield of energy and teleport Lillian and himself away but…he was a better person. "Lillian stays here," he said. It was more of a demand or a statement than a question.

"Of course," Coulsen said as he walked back towards the door.

"I'll see you later, Lill," Loki said as he turned and gave Lill a kiss. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

Two agents grabbed Loki's army but suddenly an electric shock ran up their arms. Just because he would go with them didn't mean he had to be _completely _nice.

**My, my, my; who knew Loki could be such a fluffy love bird when it came to people he actually cared about? I certainly didn't! Him and Lillian are adorable together! To all who read the original last chapter of SITLC I decided to change the girls' name to Lillian because I could. Also, I would like to explain the 'Mark' thing. I know some of you guys were confused but here's the deal: the name had nothing to do with this story. He was known as Mark for, like, three seconds so yeah. And…IT'S MY STORY AND I DO WHAT I WANT ;)**

**Thanks for reading and don't forget to 'favorite' 'review' 'follow' and 'author alert' it's pretty awesome!**

*****The Phantom*****


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, here it goes: Chapter TWO! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own **_**anything!**_

Loki paced calmly around the cage he was being held in and tried insanely hard to not just magic himself away. He would convince these people he had changed – maybe then they would leave him alone. He wanted to be back home, with Lill doing funny pranks and harmless mischief, whispering sweet nothings to each other before bed, eating ice cream at midnight and breakfast for dinner. He wanted to watch her make her artwork. He wanted to make sure she was ok while he was here. He wanted to tell her not to worry; he would be home soon…hopefully.

He had gotten to the SHIELD base after a long plane ride to who-knows-where and then another car ride with blacked out windows to God-knows-where-else and they had finally arrived, several hours later at the SHIELD base in…he wasn't sure where, really. Immediately after their arrival he had been hand-cuffed and thrown into a hulk-proof, glass cell. It was quite impressive – but not impressive enough. They would never be able to actually contain him – no one could contain him anymore. But he would stay and prove he had changed into a better person…just as long as Lill stayed safe, at home.

HHHHHHHH

Lill watched as the heavily armored men stormed out of their apartment building with Loki walking tall and confident in their midst. She was absolutely furious. She stomped to the far part of their living room, which she used as her 'art room', and started throwing chalk, pastels, paint brushes, and whatever else was unlucky enough to be within reach at a nearby canvas. Lill put her hands on her head and screamed. Loudly. She had never been one to withhold her emotions.

"WHAT THE HECK? YOUR FACE!" She yelled to the canvas. After everything Loki had already gone through and how long he was still suffering from everything she couldn't believe those people had the nerve to just barge into their apartment, take him away, and remind him of everything he was trying so hard to get away from! She stalked to the window and kicked the wall, consequently hurting her foot and she started hopping around on the other foot, holding the other, and yelling, "WHY WOULD YOU _DO _THAT! _**OW!"**_

She was so frustrated and consumed in her own anger she hadn't even noticed when two agents had reentered their apartment. "Excuse me, ma'am," one of them said, slightly scared of the woman's wrath and slightly impressed at her rage already.

'_**WHAT?"**_ she screeched, turning around to face the agents. Both agents took an involuntary step backwards.

"We were ordered to take you to the base, also," the agent said, this time only years of practice kept the fear from his voice. Sure, he was the one with the guns but she was the bloody furious one. People did unpredictable things when they were this mad. He didn't even know why: it's not like Loki was a loveable person, he thought.

"GOOD!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up – both agents flinched at that, too – and she stalked towards her room to grab a few things. "HOW LONG WILL I BE GONE?" she yelled. It seemed like she was trying to get her anger out through the loudness of her voice. For such a petite person she sure knew how to make noise.

"Erm…" the other agent said, "It depends, expect a few days…"

From the bedroom area a crash could be heard and one agent looked at the other and whispered, "Should we check on her?"

From the bedroom area Lill screeched, frustrated.

"God, no,"

HHHHHHHHHHH

Lill looked at her bag she had brought with her, stuffed under her chair and glanced again at the red-headed agent sitting by the door. She had introduced herself as Agent Romanoff and had yet to be openly hostile, so Lill tried to return the favor and not be openly hostile, either.

She was so worried about Loki. He had acted like he was mad and furious and protective when SHIELD had barged into their home but she had seen it: he was scared. He had been terrified until they had said they wouldn't bring her here and then he had calmed down to merely scared. He wouldn't like it when he found out she was here. He would be absolutely wrathful.

HHHHHHHHH

As Fury walked down the twisting maze of tunnels of the SHIELD base towards Loki's current holding cell – one that had been made to contain the hulk – he couldn't help but wonder, why wasn't Thor here? Even in the heat of battle Thor had been very protective about his brother and defended him the whole way. Once Thor had left with Loki as his prisoner they had heard nothing more of him. It had been little more than half a year since Loki had gone to face Asgardian justice and now he was back on earth. Either he had escaped or he had served his time and been reformed. Either way, Fury would have appreciated being told and would have to reprimand Thor for not saying anything, later.

But for now he would just have to deal with Loki. Fury didn't really believe that a man like Loki could be reformed and therefore couldn't really understand why that woman had stuck with him. It appeared that she knew everything that he had done and had happened but still chose to stay by his side. It didn't make any sense…unless he was controlling her. There didn't seem to be any other explanation, especially because he seemed to be causing absolutely to sort of trouble. The last time Fury had seen Loki he was 100% sure he was completely off the deep end. Gone. So why wasn't he acting like it? Fury wouldn't believe anything Loki said until he got all he wanted from the woman and from Thor.

…

Fury walks toward the holding container and watches as Loki's eyes track his movements. He doesn't move anything else but holds eerily still. He appeared completely calm and docile. He hadn't even made any dramatic speeches and threats yet. What was going on?

"Director Fury," Loki said pleasantly. "What can I do for you?" His face was completely smooth, giving away no emotion. To anyone who wasn't aware that Loki was most talented with his words it would have seemed like he was a completely civil man, now. Not Fury. He wasn't convinced – not yet.

"I have a few questions for you," Fury said as he stood in front of the keypad that would allow him access to the room – _if _Loki proved he wouldn't try to kill him first.

"By all means," Loki said as he took a seat at the table. He waved for Fury to continue as he tried to scoot his chair in. It, and the table and the rest of the chairs were all screwed to the floor though, so it had little effect. A small look of amusement flitted across Loki's face before he slid himself into the chair.

"Right," Fury said quietly to himself. He put in the code to the cell door and walked in with the hiss of the door sealing behind him. "I would like to know about your trial." First Fury would see how much Loki would willingly give him before his compliant façade caved and he showed his true colors again.

"I'd rather not."

Apparently he wasn't going to get much willingly at all. Loki's face was still closed off, though, and Fur couldn't see whatever dark thoughts were swirling around in Loki's head.

"Fine," Fury said, moving on to another topic, then, "How long have you been here, on earth?"

Loki's face stayed as impassive as ever as he said, "Seven months,"

Fury took this in slowly, if Loki had been here for seven months he had only been in Asgard for one month. There was no way Asgardian justice had been carried out so soon. Loki had definitely escaped. "Did you escape from Asgard?" Fury asked bluntly.

Loki cocked his head to the side, as if in thought, but Fury knew Loki thought at the speed of light. Everything Loki did, ever, was all for the show. Loki's show. He showed people what he wanted so they thought what he wanted them to think. He surely was a master of deception. "I was freed, with every important party in full knowledge of my departure," Loki said.

"And your sentence, what was it?"

"A certain form of imprisonment. It was served in full. I was changed, and I left," Loki said with finality. The gods from Asgard sure knew how to speak with superiority.

"_Director Fury," _an agent said from the other side of the glass. _"The woman's name is Lillian Mueller."_

Fury glanced over at Loki who had tensed and looked as ridged as a statue. He was going to fire that agent. Fury got up and walked towards the door. It opened with a hiss and just as soon as he was through the door the agent said, "She's asking to see Loki." The door hadn't even closed yet and Fury felt, rather than saw the rage building in Loki.

Suddenly the chair Loki had been sitting on, once nailed to the floor crashed into the hulk-proof glass causing it to splinter and crack, but it doesn't quite shatter. "WHERE IS SHE?" Loki howled as if in pain.

Fury turned to the agent, "If he escapes I'm locking you in here with him."

Loki's fist met the glass and it did shatter this time. "Bring me to her." That glass was hulk proof and last time Fury checked Loki wasn't known for his brawn. Sure he was a god but the hulk had turned Loki into jelly all over the floor. Something wasn't making sense.

**WOOH! Loki's awesome! You'll have to read the next chapter to find out what's up, bro, but yeah. Just in case you all didn't know; reviews make me happy inside! So do it! **

**Also, sorry for Loki being OC but he's kind of trying to move on with his eternal life, you know? He's changing and becoming a better person. At first I was kind of almost disappointed that he wasn't being evil anymore but then I realized that Loki is selfish. He's not actually turning 'good' or whatever he's just sort of doing what he knows is best for himself. He knows he couldn't really take being near Thor and all that pressure and punishment for doing bad things all the time anymore so he changed for himself. He wasn't thinking of anyone else when he decided to go to earth..so life. REVIEW DO IT I DARE YOU SOMETHING COOL WILL HAPPEN!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Note: So I appreciate you all. Blah, blah, blah. You probably just want to see the story…**

**On with the show.**

**Disclaimer: I own **_**nothing!**_

Loki was furious. His glare never left the back of Nick Fury's head as he left the room. Loki was swift to follow, feet crunching on the shards of broken glass. He had asked _one _thing of Coulsen and he couldn't even grant that Lill would be left out of this. These were his mistakes and he would pay for them – but not Lill.

Loki followed Fury out the hall and as he passed the poor agent that had given Lill away he saw him shudder and Loki couldn't help the dark laugh that escaped from his lips. He was angry and that was an all too familiar feeling from his past life. He would make _someone_ pay if Lill were to be hurt in any way – however how minor it was. It wouldn't matter. Lill was way out of bounds for SHIELD.

Loki followed Fury down several winding and twisting hallways, probably a roundabout way to confuse him, and Loki memorized every twist and turn. He would stop at nothing to get to Lill if this was a trick.

Fury continued swiftly, confidently through the labyrinth that was the SHIELD base until they came upon a glass pane door. Through it Loki could see that red-haired assassin that had been with the Avengers, but more importantly he could see Lill. Dear Lill trying to make conversation with the seemingly stony agent.

The door seemed to have a code and just as Fur was about to enter it Loki brushed past him and slammed the door open with the same strength he had shown in the hulk-proof cell. "Lill," he breathed in a sigh of relief as he saw Lill completely unharmed, if a little ruffled and disgruntled.

Lillian jumped up with a bright smile on her face but just as Loki had smashed the door open the flame-haired agent had spun around into a ready fighting stance with gun in hand. "Oh," Lill said as she saw the gun. Loki rolled his eyes and walked past the agent as Fury said something pertaining to the agent 'standing down' and 'this is Loki' and other some such nonsense.

Loki didn't say anything as he took hold of Lill and pulled her into him. He leaned his lips down to the top of her and gave her a kiss, clutching her tightly as he calmed himself of his painful and worrisome imaginings that could have been happening. Lill hugged him back and waited patiently. She knew more than anyone what he was feeling. Better than that brother of his that had been so ignorant to the point of idiocy and almost letting Loki die, go insane, or worse; tortured for troubles that weren't of his doing. Better than that father that had seen fit to put Loki, his whole life, below the people and letting the Court do with him as they would. Lill was so mad her hands started shaking with rage and the next thing she knew Loki was laughing.

"Stop it!" She yelled at him as she backed up and swatted his hands. "This is _SO _not funny, Loki! The whole living room is in ruin right now because of you!"

But Loki kept on laughing. Yes, Lill may know better than anyone how he felt but he also knew better than anyone how _she _felt and how _she _acted. He had known right away that she was shaking in anger. He had predicted that if she hadn't been hurt she would be in a bloody, seething rage and he could very well see the ruin that the living room was probably in. He knew that she wasn't actually mad at him, it's just how she let her anger out; yelling, being loud, throwing things. She sure did know how to have a fit. She kicked, bit, screamed, broke things, she even used bulky objects as weapons when she really started going at it. "I'm sorry, love," Loki said, still chuckling.

"You better be," Lill grumbled, glaring vehemently at anything that moved.

Fury coughed awkwardly from the doorway he had been standing in as he watched the whole heartwarming – albeit grizzly-bear angry – reunion. The flame-haired agent had left and Loki and Lill were all that were left to Fury's penetrating gaze. "We still have questions for both of you," he stated firmly. It rather did seem that no matter what he did he could truly not contain Loki when it came to protecting the girl.

"We can do it together," the girl said with flaming eyes. She seemed a good match for Loki with all her fierceness.

**XxX**

And so it was. Fury watched the two sit side by side in a room with a one way mirror spanning the length of one wall. They reacted towards each other like absolute crazy people. That's probably why Loki liked the girl so much; she was almost as crazy as he was.

But even though Loki was now calm, Fury couldn't let that incident with the Hulk-proof cell go. Loki had never had that strength before and Fury didn't want to deal with a rampaging god alone. "Agent Hill," Fury called, "contact Thor."

**So sorry for the short chapter! Anyways so there will be actual plot showing up sometime soon, I promise! Ok, don't you guys agree; Lillian is hilarious! She is a weirdo! She sounds like she would be a lot of fun, despite her tendency to throwing blunt objects when feeling the slightest bit melancholy. **

**Do comment, it makes your author (me) kind of actually very happy!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright so it may come as a surprise to some of you but I do actually plan ahead and figure out the plot and stuff ahead of time so that I'm not sitting there with seven chapters of absolute nothingness… So I just wanted to say that I smoothed out the wrinkle in this story and I figured out the problem! Do read until the very end of the story. It gets angsty and at the end I may just finish it there but I will leave it a tad open-ended just in case I want to come back to these stories. So read on, review, and spread the good word! Check the bottom for reply to reviews as always. **

**Disclaimer: I own **_**nothing!**_

"This is unbelievable," Lill says. She had been ranting for the past ten minutes. Again, this was just how Lill got out her frustration; talking, making noise, being loud – being heard. "I'm so mad, Loki."

Loki nods and pulls Lill's equally uncomfortable metal chair towards his and wraps an arm around her shoulders. It frustrated him to no end that no one would let him change himself – better himself, to leave his past in the past – but it enraged him that they wouldn't leave Lill out of it. He knew Lill was a strong person – heck, she was a fighter – but he still wanted to protect her. He couldn't see her hurt. "Me too," he said simply.

Loki looked down at Lill who was already gazing up at him with her burning eyes. She was so alive, burning bright with energy and love and her never-ending vitality. The side of her mouth quirked up in an apologetic grin, "Yeah," she says.

Loki leans down and gives her a kiss.

"I hope their watching," Lill says, kissing him back.

"They don't understand it," Loki says, closing his eyes and enjoying the simple display of love, "They don't understand why you stay with me."

Lill laughs, "They haven't a clue –"

"And I don't either," Loki interrupts. "I don't know why you stay with me. You know everything. I've told you everything. You know everything I've done and yet you still stay with me. Why?"

Lill laughs again, "You do realize that _everything _entails the goods as well as the bads? I'd say the goods far outweigh the bads. Besides, I like mischief."

Loki sighs contentedly, she had told him this before but sometimes you just need to hear that you're loved, "I do so love you."

"I love you too," Lill says gently.

It was then, as the two were sitting in what could be described as the most uncomfortable chairs in the history of the world in a room waiting to be interrogated that Loki practically passed out in a panic brought on by some unseen force. Well – as far as Lill could see.

"Why in Valhalla…" Loki practically seethed. His very form was radiating anger and fear and Lill put a hand on his face, forcing him to look at her.

"What? What's wrong?" Lill asked.

"Thor is here,"

**XxX**

Fury had brought Thor into the observation room looking into Loki and Lill's interrogation room and just as they walked into the room Loki stiffened up. Through the video-audio tape feeding from the room Fury and Thor heard Loki hiss, "_Thor is here,"_

"Loki! Can I see him?" Thor asked as he spotted his brother.

"Not yet, Thor. First I would just like to know what happened on Asgard and then I have…a question," Fury said, thinking back to the impossible strength Loki had displayed in the holding cell and again when they had gone to find the Lillian girl.

"Of course, Director…I…it is a sad memory for me. I have not seen Loki or heard from him since he left Asgard. He didn't even tell me he was leaving," Thor said, looking disconsolate.

So Thor told him. Thor told him what had happened and the sentence given to Loki upon his return. He told Fury about the Mage and the discovery that Loki had not, in fact, been in complete control of anything he had done. He told Fury of the extensive torture Loki had had to endure. When the story had come to a close Fury was blown away – not that he showed it. He kept his calm face on throughout the whole retelling. "Is Loki a threat?" He asked as soon as Thor had finished.

"I…don't think so. If anything the only one in danger of Loki is himself. He hates himself for what had happened and…he won't let me comfort him," Thor said, his eyes trained on the floor.

Fury nods, "Would you like to see Loki?"

**XxX**

Renee Griffith walked into the cemetery passing the headstones, sure in his path as he had trod it every Sunday unfailingly. It was night, now, and a slight fog covered the cemetery giving it an almost cliché yet still disturbing feeling. He knelt down in front of the family headstone and put his head in his hands. How had this happened? How had the gem of his life – his daughter, his only child – been ripped from the world? And so easily – unceremoniously and just another face in the masses killed in the incident with the Aliens. Killed in the invasion.

To make it worse his daughter and her children and husband were slaughtered right along with her. There was nothing – _nothing _left of her daughter. He had loved her so much. She was the one thing he did right by in his whole life, the one perfect thing that he worked so hard to protect throughout her whole life. It killed him – _it KILLED him_ when her mother had been taken from him and he did anything he could to see his little girl smile. And now, now it was gone. The light of his life was gone. His only child, his wife – nothing was left for him. They had all been taken.

Renee kept his head in his hands as his shoulders shook with grief. Then the rain began. He didn't care. He stayed where he was. He would never be able to have anyone, after all, he was a mutant. Forever enduring in this tragic world. He was eternal – immortal. He couldn't be killed – at least he hadn't found a way, yet, and everyone he ever loved – his mother, father, brothers, sister, his dear grandparents, his wife, and now his beloved daughter all were taken from him as he _endured._

Renee screamed to the dead. It just _killed _him inside. He could never have anyone. He was being soaked to the bone in the rain, crying for his dead as he would endure eternal and he wanted blood. Someone had to be blamed for taking his only child's life. Someone _would PAY!_

**Woah. Yeah. That guy, Renee, lives a pretty tragic life. In case anyone's wondering I took the name Renee for a guy name from Sherlock Holmes two movie. Renee was the brother of the gypsy girl who helped Holmes and Watson across borders and whatnot. So I suppose it's a French name. **

**So anyway, woah! Plot it forming! Anyway:**

**Here's to talk-ape: ok thanks for the review but if you would be so kind as to indicate what exactly you liked better? Maybe you'll warm up to this one as the plot actually comes into play, yeah? **

**Here's to fan girl 666: You're like my best reviewer ever. Thanks a lot, bro, no joke! I'm sending virtual cookies and chocolate and rainbows and butterflies and anything and everything awesome to you!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ok, guys, I promise I'm not usually a grammar Nazi, I'm not! For those of you who didn't notice I misused 'their' in place of 'they're' I'm usually so good about those things, I don't know why that happened! T.T Anyway as stated in the previous chapter I brought in the mutants. If you're not mutant fans, I'm sorry, I needed them to be the villain, ok? Jeepers. Also, try not to sympathize with Renee he is the bad guy, after all. I mean he has a sad story but he's still the bad guy. Also, I'm bringing in some Xmen and this is before Magneto loses his powers and stuff. But everyone be aware that I only know stuff that was in the movies…**

**Disclaimer: I own **_**nothing!**_

"Brother!" Thor exclaimed as he burst into the room.

_Leave, leave, leave! _Loki thought. He was being kind, though; he bit back all retorts of 'I'm not your brother' so he thought he was doing pretty well, so far.

"I've missed you!"

_Can't you just leave? _Loki thought. He kept silent, though. If there were ever a chance to prove he had changed it would be now, when confronted with his bro – Thor.

"Why did you leave me?"

This time Loki couldn't hold in his exasperated sigh. Thor really was just a creature of love, he saw hope in everyone and Loki didn't know why – he didn't know why Thor didn't just give up on him and it killed him inside that Loki cold never live up to the perfect hope and love Thor so freely gave him. Why did he do that? Why? "It's better that I'm here," was all Loki said, though.

"Was it better that you didn't tell me?" Thor challenged.

"Of course!" Loki exclaimed with a sneer. Lill gripped his hand and he shook himself; now was his chance to show he wasn't a threat anymore. The best way to do that would be to be pleasant, not angry. Think of Lill. Think of Lill. "You would have tried to convince me to stay," Loki said more calmly.

"And rightly so! You belong in Asgard, Loki," Thor said with bright eyes.

"But I don't, Thor. I do not belong there. It's better for all parties if I were to stay here," Loki said again. Well, maybe it wasn't easier for Fury but it would be better for everyone else involved.

"But –"

"Thor," Loki said again. How many times, how many times would he have to say it before Thor understood? Just because Thor wanted him on Asgard it didn't mean anyone else did – in fact, quite the opposite. Thor did have a habit of loving bad things. "Not everyone agrees with your opinions of me."

That did it; Thor's eyes dropped to the floor, "You're wrong, brother. I'll show you," with that he started towards the door.

"Thor, so help me –" Loki started as Thor opened the door. Thor showed no signs of hearing him and continued on.

"Now hang on," Lill said angrily. She jumped up and caught the door before it could swing closed and marched out after Thor.

Loki pitied Thor for what was to come.

**XxX**

"Now hang on," Lill said angrily. There was no way Lill was going to pass up this opportunity to give Thor an earful. Sure, she probably would have multiple opportunities in the foreseeable future but if Thor was a creature of love then Lill was a creature of passion. She had strong opinions and emotions and let everyone know it and because she was angry now, she was going to let Thor know _now. _

"Thor," she said firmly as she grabbed his arm. For a small person she made short work of spinning Thor around and pushing him against a wall. She couldn't very well hold him there but her fiery gaze and angry demeanor did the job all on its own. "What _is _your _problem?_"

"I don't understand, Lady," Thor said as he glanced warily at the woman. Angry women were not something Thor trifled with willingly anymore. Not after that time when he had insulted… well, that wasn't the problem anymore.

"_Why _don't you _understand?" _Lill asked a bit louder. Her voice climbed a few pitches with each word and Thor flinched away. Angry women were _not_ to be trifled with. "Are you so _blind _to what Loki has _been through? _Don't you _know?_"

Just then, luckily for Thor, Fury decided to make his appearance. He coughed gently to make his presence known to Lillian who had her back turned to him.

"_What!" _She screeched. She let her emotions out. She let people know when she was angry.

Inwardly Fury flinched, on the outside he stayed composed as always and said, "_You_ are supposed to be with Loki. As for you, Thor, I have to ask you a question or two, if you would come with me."

Thor nodded eagerly at the escape offered to him and Lill stormed back towards the interrogation room.

**XxX**

Loki, despite his prior indignation at Thor's surprise appearance, couldn't help but grin at Lill when she returned to the room looking no happier than when she had left after Thor. "I am _SO _mad," she said as she plopped into the chair next to Loki.

Loki just nodded. You couldn't really calm Lill down when she was in a 'mood'. Usually Loki could handle her moods because they were usually not angry moods and therefore easier to handle but now, now he wasn't so sure. Loki just hoped and prayed that she wouldn't turn her angry gaze at him.

Luckily enough the red-headed agent – Loki couldn't be bothered to remember her name – entered the room, presumably to interrogate them.

Because Loki – if not Lill – were being rather diplomatic and polite, Natasha told herself that she would be too – even if Loki had hurt Hawkeye.

**XxX**

"How did he do this?" Fury asked as he looked over the damage Loki had done to the cell again.

"Oh," Thor said as he too looked at what Loki had done. He looked…confused and almost – guilty? "What happened?"

"He found out that we had brought Lillian – that woman you had the pleasure of meeting in the hallway – here," Fury said as he walked closer, feet crunching the shattered glass.

"Lillian? He did this because of Lillian?" Thor asked, surprised.

"Yes, as soon as he found out he simply smashed the glass and demanded he be taken to her. No explanation, nothing. Never before had he possessed this strength, I'm sure of it," Fury answered.

"It's, well, he has, but," Thor said, one hand gesturing aimlessly at the glass, "Well it's sort of… it's like, well it's happened before. Two or three times."

"Spit it out, Thor," Fury said, getting annoyed at Thor's sudden inability to speak.

"Ok, as you know; Loki is a frost giant. Before the war with Asgard and the Frost Giants, Jotunheim was a great and mighty place. The Frost Giants were great warriors and architects. The reason we had such a big problem with the Frost Giants in the war was because they had seemed to suddenly have gained an impossible amount of strength, rivaled only by Odin at his best," Thor shivered at the thought.

"Where did the sudden strength come from?" Fury asked. Intrigued – inwardly of course, remaining stoic as always on the outside.

"Passion. Frost Giants are creatures of passion. They didn't fight with the same passion until Asgard came upon their own realm. There, they were powered by passion. They were protecting their home now and they did it with an icy passion that was unbelievable."

"So why didn't Loki have this strength any other time we've fought him? He seemed pretty passionate those times," Fury said dryly.

"Well, power from passion… more of fear of something he loves or admires getting hurt or destroyed. He wasn't afraid of anything bad happening then, he was…angry," Thor said. But Fury wasn't done; Thor still looked unbelievably guilty.

"And when else had Loki gotten this strength?"

Thor's face couldn't have looked any more guilty than it did then.

**Good god I hate this chapter. It took me way too long and I didn't even get back to Renee… Sorry. This chapter sucks. GRRRBLHA! Anyway: sorry if I mislead some of you the other day. When I said at the end of the story I didn't mean I was finishing it there I meant end of this whole darn thing. Which will not be this chapter, or the next, or the next, or the next. Probably not the next one either. Yeah.**

**Phantom OUT!**


	6. Chapter 6

**K, so from now on the updates will probably and most unfortunately be fewer and farther between. School starting and end of summer vacations and such… You know the drill. So as it were I might get caught up in everything and totally forget what with all the homework and extra flotsam and jetsam SO, what you **_**should **_**do is randomly leave reviews. Example: You'll be sitting there and randomly think "Oh, geez, Phantom hasn't updated in like a billion billion years! I'll go comment to kick her butt in gear!" Yeah, that's what should happen. So, spread the word and hype…**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing…**

"Renee?" A heavily accented voice called from the hall.

Lonely and longing for something familiar, Renee answered the lilting tones, "I'm in here, Abella,"

A mass of black curls popped into view, filling the doorway into Renee's lavish apartment, "Bonjour, ami!"

"What are you doing around here, Bell?" Renee asked. He didn't really care: he was happy for any company – even that of Bell's.

"Well," She said, slinking over to Renee who was slouching on his couch, "I heard you could use some company and I had nothing better to do so…" she said sitting down closer to him than politely necessary. She was such a cheat.

"Good God, Bell, my family just died! Give a guy some respect," Renee said. He had meant for it to come out joking and slightly scolding but all he could do was a broken sob. Renee looked away. Bell's piercing eyes weren't ones you revealed any true emotions to. Not normally. Not ever.

But it was too late now: Bell's bright, glinting gaze had already seen it and she was going to do whatever she wanted now that Renee was vulnerably emotional. Renee braced himself as Bell put a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, look, I…I know how you feel,"

Renee looked back at Bell, surprised. What? She wasn't seizing his moment of weakness? She wasn't being a generally horrible person? What was going on here? "Do you?" Renee finally got out.

"I do," Bell said, brushing a single curl of black hair out of her face. Now it was her turn to look away. She looked anywhere around the ritzy apartment but at Renee. She looked out the giant windows and at the television. She looked at the fireplace with burning eyes, "Senet was in New York during the invasion, also,"

Oh.

Oh. Senet was Bell's husband. Granted she hadn't been very faithful to him but she was very protective of the things she thought of as hers. It did surprise Renee that she cared he was dead, she seemed so flippant about him usually. "Well, don't just sit there with your mouth open, Renee Leone Griffith, you'll catch flies…or a knife…" she finished half-heartedly.

"But…you care?" Renee asked, less than eloquently.

"Of course I care!" Bell hissed, whipping around to look away again, her hair smacking his face in a way she probably thought satisfying. "We were…getting real, this time."

"You were settling down?" This seemed more and more unlikely. What was this? Some kind of twisted last minute remorse for cheating on him? "You can't fix it now, Bell, he's dead,"

"And so is your daughter!" Bell snapped angrily. She paced across the room and punched the fireplace, cracking the stone. Bell was, after all, another mutant – strong, fierce, and wicked. Bell huffed, "Listen, despite poplar belief I didn't come here to argue with you. I…I know someone,"

"I know a lot of 'someone's'," Renee answered sarcastically.

Bell glared, "Not appreciated," she paused and sat back down, this time across from Renee, "I mean I know someone who thinks that there was more to the invasion in New York than aliens."

Renee's face hardened, "No, I'm not wasting time on this,"

"Don't you want to know? Don't you want to know who's really responsible?"

"No one's responsible. It was a freak invasion," Renee said the words like a rehearsed line. He got up walked towards the door, "Here's the door. You know the way out,"

Bell growled. "Fine," she slipped a card into Renee's pocket, "Think about it, though. I know, deep down: you want to blame someone for this. I'm meeting with him on Saturday. That's the place. You can come with."

With that she left in a flourish of black curls and too-expensive perfume.

**XxX**

Fury sat in the room connected to Loki's interrogation room and looked grumpily. This was less than satisfying. How in the world was he supposed to react to this? After Fury had asked Thor the other times Loki had gotten this 'passionate' strength Thor had shut off. He refused and kept going back to, 'Loki's punishment has been paid in full, he's no longer to blame' shtick. It was all rather frustrating.

Technically Loki was to be punished on Asgard and that was to be the official punishment: that was it. It was done. But how did one go about letting a known murderer go? A person who had previously attempted genocide – one, who had killed so many, hurt so many couldn't be forgiven that easily. This Fury knew. Fury sure didn't forgive Loki for all the destruction he had wrought, for all the people he had killed, all the lives he had ruined. But his punishment was fulfilled. Under the law he was a free man and SHIELD could only legally hold him for 24 hours without cause. After that they _had _to let him go.

Fury pressed the intercom button, "Romanoff."

Agent Romanoff had been questioning the two and except for some sudden bursts of emotion from Lillian, they both seemed quite civil. Fury watched as Romanoff said a few more words and got up. She walked out of the room and into the observatory room. "Sir," she replied smartly.

"Legally they're free," Fury said with a gruff sigh.

Romanoff's fist clenched at her side. It was weird to see such an intense display of emotion from her; she was usually so calm and collected. Any sign of emotion at all was like an earthquake. "Will we hold them here for our twenty-four hours?"

"I don't see why we should. We have no reason to," Fury said still slightly exasperated with all the legalities and such.

"Sir, he could still be a threat,"

"But is he? Look at him, Romanoff: he's spent nearly seven months here on earth – not far from New York, where we watching the most – and we never even suspected he was there. Not until a retired agent – _retired – _spotted him in public. Doing normal people things: shopping. With his _girlfriend."_

"He could just be biding his time," Romanoff said. She was obviously _not _comfortable with letting Loki walk. It was almost cute seeing any emotion on the usually stoic agent.

"It doesn't matter if he is: legally we cannot hold him," Fury said.

Inside the room Loki laughed.

"What's so funny?" Romanoff asked as she watched him laugh through the one-way mirror.

"_They're letting us go," _Loki said to Lill.

"Of course he can hear us," Fury said, exasperated, once again.

**XxX**

Renee threw the card on the marble countertop. This was hard enough without throwing this wrench in the problem. He so, _so, SO_ wanted someone to blame – but he didn't want to go and get burned. He didn't want to go only to find out it was just some crack-pot spouting disappointing stories.

But he couldn't resist. Anything – _anything _was better than just letting his whole family be ripped away without anybody paying any kind of retribution. He had tried so hard to make himself think that it was just some freak occurrence and that it could have happened to anyone – there was no one to blame – but he couldn't. Something was better than nothing.

Renee picked up the card and looked at the address.

**So yeah. Apparently Renee will go down with this ship. Just so everyone knows there will neer be anything between Fury and Romanoff I was just being sarcastic with the whole 'she's cute when she shows any emotion'. So great things are happening. Do tell though; do you guys think it was starting to drag? Cause I sure did. I was like, 'ugh! Let's go!' but I had to get some stuff in otherwise nothing would've made sense! **

**Anyway: review, **_**review,**__** review, REVIEW!**_

**K, Phantom – OUT!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Ok, seriously people: I have to talk to you about something. When I, (or anybody in general), is talking to a general populous, (e.g. "You all need to work on this technique"), most people remove themselves from the masses. So I'll say that YOU ALL have to review and you'll be all like "Oh someone else will. Phantom doesn't mean me!" NO. I MEAN YOU. EVERYONE MUST REVIEW! Ehehe it's ok, though, I do it too…**

**Anyway, Disclaimer: I own **_**nothing!**_

"Do not follow us, Thor," Loki said seriously.

Thor's big blue eyes widened at Loki's request, "But – brother –"

"I mean it Thor. Let me be, now. Don't follow me, don't come after me, and don't try to bring me back, Thor," with that Loki grabbed Lill's hand and teleported back home with Thor's heart-broken face the last thing Loki saw before he was staring at the living room.

It was in absolute chaos. There was a fine layer of different colored chalk covering the back half of the living room and paint dripped all over onto the already paint covered hardwood floor. Paint brushes were scattered on the floor and some were even snapped in half. "Wow," was all Loki said. He turned to look at Lill but she wasn't even looking at the mess.

"I can't believe they let us go," Lill said slumping onto the couch and sighing heavily.

"They only let us go because they were afraid to see what you did if they refused to release us," Loki replied, still eyeing the mess.

Lill looked up and followed Loki's gaze before blushing deeply, "I was mad, ok?"

Loki couldn't do anything but laugh.

**XxX**

Renee stood outside of an old warehouse in the industrial district – a place most sane people avoided after dark. The warehouse looked like any other up and down the rows: blacked out windows, rusty, old, and most likely smelly. _Bell couldn't have picked a more conspicuous meeting place,_ Renee thought.

The whole district was relatively noisy through the night – making the less-than-legal activities that usually went on here easier than normal – and Renee couldn't stop himself from looking back at his shiny new Audi A6. It was going to get jacked – Renee just knew it. He should have just had a cab drive him here.

Renee took a deep breath to steady himself and put thoughts of his poor Audi behind him – it's not like he couldn't afford another one if someone stole it…or just hunt it down himself.

Renee tested the door facing the road and found it locked but he was 100% sure this was the address so he walked around to the side. He tested the door again and it swung open with a loud metallic groan which was promptly drowned out by the noise inside the building.

Renee looked around the warehouse, bewildered; what was going on here? There was dozens upon dozens of other people in the building and they were all milling around, talking, laughing, and yelling.

"Renee!" a voice exclaimed. Renee looked over and saw Bell clasping his arm. "There you are!"

"What is going on here, Bell? You said you were going to meet him not going to some ghetto party house," Renee said with another disapproving look around.

"Well, I am meeting him – after he's done," Bell paused and dragged Renee over to a corner of the room that wasn't occupied with highly pierced, tattooed, and mostly drunken people. "He's like a freedom speaker, Rey, these people; they're all mutants – like us!"

"Yeah…" Renee said. He had noticed they were all mutants: one was flying around on mosquito-like wings, another was green and had scaly looking skin with long cuts on his neck that could only be gills. Another person was climbing the walls and another was sporting two pairs of arms. There were also multiple copies of one man, milling about and talking to anything that even resembled a female. "I don't know about this, Bell."

Bell's eyes, bright with excitement, dulled, "When did you become such a party-pooper? You used to have no problem coming to any kind of exotic clubs I brought you to," she pouted.

"That's the thing, Bell: you get arrested at 'freedom speeches'. Nobody gets arrested at clubs unless they start a fight," Renee said. He knew it was a flimsy excuse but…

"OH, COME ON! It's not like you haven't been arrested before, Rey," Bell said with a wink. "Remember Utah?"

"Ok I have an excuse for that: there's absolutely nothing else to do there! I had to create a little excitement!"

"Uh-huh, and what about Shanghai? Or how about the Austria debacle? What about that time in the Pyramids?" Bell said listing off times they had gotten into deeper trouble than expected together.

"All rather unplanned incidents," Renee said coolly – he couldn't help smiling at the memories.

"Of course – according to plan we wouldn't have gotten caught," Bell said with a laugh of her own, "Just stay until he's done speaking: if you don't like what you hear, then you can leave – I promise."

**XxX**

Tony Stark sat at his favorite bar – the one in the penthouse viewing the Loki-shaped crater – and poured himself another scotch. Tony couldn't help but grin at the sight of the crater – it wasn't his favorite memory but it sure was funny.

Ever since Loki's return to Asgard the Avengers had mostly disbanded: Natasha traveled all over the world completing missions for SHIELD and other…less known bidders.

Clint left to do much the same and every once in a blue moon Tony would hear from Clint – usually in the form of a customized postcard with a picture of a cityscape with a miniscule red circle revealing what his target had been and showing how far away he had successfully done away with it. Dr. Banner – despite begging and pleading on Tony's part – left for India, again. It was a pity: Tony didn't have any other intelligent life to communicate with around here.

Captain America – Steve – actually stayed at Stark, (now the Avenger Tower), tower with Tony. He filled his time with workouts and trying to regain a sense of the world around him – one that had changed so drastically since the last time he had been awake to see it.

Thor, of course, had returned with Loki to oversee his punishment. So it came as a surprise when Jarvis' voice filled the room, saying, "Mr. Stark, Thor is at the front door."

Tony's eyebrows rose in surprise. Had Loki escaped? Had he paid his punishment in only seven months? Thor had learned to use the front door? "Tell him to come in."

Tony casually strolled over to the ostentatiously expensive couch and plopped down on the leather – all without spilling a drop of his deep amber liquid he held so dear.

Without further ado Thor came galumphing into the spacious penthouse. "Stark!"

Tony hoped, for his own sake, that Thor had completely missed the Loki-crater and said, "What brings you here, to the lowly earth?"

Thor flopped onto the plush couch opposite Tony and gave him a sunny smile. He looked just fine, his hair as gayishly long as ever and grin as wide as ever. "Well, I came to visit Loki here and then before leaving I decided to come visit my Avenging friends!"

Tony blinked…He hadn't…surely he hadn't heard that right, "Loki…is…HERE?"

**Alright, so that's what you people get! Ok so someone (I'm too lazy to look) asked what Bell and Renee's mutant strength thingers were so here you go:**

**Renee: longevity, basically. It like a healing-factor. Kind of like of Wolverine where he lives forever and ever amen. I've decided for story purposes that he can get drunk, though.**

**Bell: ok, remember in X-men First Class with the diamond chick? I guess she's kind of like that: she's super strong but lives forever because diamonds are forever. **

**Renee and Bell met when they were younger and knew each other most of their lives which can explain the relationship thinger they have together.**

**Phantom**


	8. Chapter 8

**Alrighty then…So blahsgjrihj! Those are my feelings for this story right now. After I'm done with this story I think I'm just gonna do some fluff and not-too-deep stories centered around Loki but in no relation to this or the other Loki stories I wrote…Yeah… So there. **

**Disclaimer: I own **_**nothing! **_

"…For us to have freedom, fellow mutants, complete freedom, we must fight. No one will hand it to us and no one is so inclined to do so anyway. The pitiful humans have no idea…" the speaker crowed. He was proud, confident, and vengeful. He had obviously been wronged some way or another in the past and was hell bent on getting his and giving 'them' theirs. Despite his grisly hate and viciousness he sure knew how to work the crowd. Everything he said seemed to affect everyone in the crowd one way or another.

"Should we be hiding from the humans, as we do?" The speaker roared angrily.

"**NO!**" the crowd screamed back.

"Are we not superior to those who think themselves 'normal'? ARE WE INFERIOR?!" His whole frame shook with the power with which he spoke and his salt and pepper hair had long ago started falling out of its orderly swept-back style. He had wrinkles and graying hair so the hurt must have been long ago – long enough that it had festered into this, this speech of encouragement to fight humans.

"_**NOOOO!**_" The crowd screeched again. One man had actually burst into flames from his adrenalin and excitement. Renee pressed himself farther against the back wall, trying not to get accidentally speared by a girl with sharp looking wings which had suddenly sprouted when the speech got more heated – she was now shaking her hands and screaming right along with the rest of the riled up crowd.

"Is he almost done?" Renee had to scream in Abella's ear to make sure she heard over all the noise.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Bell screeched with a gleeful look on her face that looked half-insane and said '_isn't this great?_'.

"They push us back and call us monsters! Then they turn around and _use _us! They _experiment _on us! HOW SHOULD WE REPAY THESE ATROCITIES?!" The man had been screaming and yelling and preaching for so long and loudly Renee was sure he would have no voice for the rest of the month.

Throughout the warehouse screams of death and war rang out strong and vicious and just then the door burst inward and police and F.B.I. fully suited in bullet-proof vests and black protective suits started waving guns in the air and calling out broken laws and slapping cuffs on anyone who was near.

Renee turned, enraged but under control, to Bell, "What did I tell you?" He hissed. He roughly grabbed her arm and started dragging her towards the far end of the room. He knew she could easily break a hole in the wall for them to get through – if they could get to the wall first. "WE NEED THE GUY!" She screamed less than eloquently.

She dug her feet in and started pulling him toward the makeshift stage where the freedom-speaker was currently screaming at the four F.B.I. guys surrounding him. "FINE!" Renee screamed, clutching a fistful of his own hair, forcing himself to think. How would he get them out of this? How was he going to pull this off? Bell never thought – she never planned and she never, ever thought about anyone else. She charged recklessly into situations knowing she would survive. Because of her diamond nature she really couldn't be destroyed and this assurance left her arrogant and unthinking. Renee always, _always _had to think of how to get out of whatever mess she had gotten them into.

Though he had gotten into a fair amount of trouble too…

Renee shook himself, he needed to think. THINK! As they ran past mutants and humans alike Renee spotted the man that had burst into flame who was still flaming and without a second thought he plunged his hand into the inferno and dragged the man – upon closer inspection he was revealed to be rather young: a teenager, merely a child. "You're helping me, now!" He shouted.

The boy couldn't do anything but allow himself to be dragged along and stare at the hand clamped on his still burning arm. The offending hand was continually burning to a crisp and then rejuvenating itself. It _had _to have hurt but the man dragging him showed no signs of pain. (A/N Sorry I'm suddenly switching the flame-boy's POV)

"Bell!" The man yelled, throwing the other person he had been dragging towards Magneto – the man giving the speech. The woman suddenly turned into a giant, glittering diamond in her same humanoid figure and faced the men pointing weapons at Magneto. The man proceeded to throw _me _at the men and shouted, "Flame on, kid!"

I had no idea what was going on…so I did. I threw fire balls at the men surrounding Magneto and the woman and they all cowered back. The diamond woman threw Magneto over her shoulder and started sprinting head on to the back wall. The man started off, too, but I reached out to him. My hand caught his shoulder and the man shook me off but stopped, "Take me with!" I pleaded. They seemed like important people…and I was never one to miss out on something big.

The man groaned in annoyance but yanked me ahead of him and commanded me to start running. The diamond women ahead of me had smashed right through the metal wall and had disappeared into the night. As I jumped through the hole I turned just in time to see the man who had dragged me along get shot in the leg. A look of extreme pain flitted across his face before his fell, rolled, and landed kneeling on his good leg with two guns in his hand and shot four shots back into the warehouse before standing up – as if he hadn't even been shot – and jumped out of the warehouse, landing right next to me.

The man's eyes flitted around the area, glowing – literally glowing gold – and he grabbed my arm again and dragged me towards dumpsters situated against the very warehouse we had just been in. "Help me push these," he rasped. His voice sounded gruff and his eyes hadn't stopped glowing.

We quickly pushed one large dumpster in front of the hole and went to work on the second when more F.B.I. agents swarmed around the side of the warehouse, surrounding them.

**XxX**

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'LOKI'S HERE?'" Tony shouted as he jumped off of the couch, spilling his scotch and for once…not caring.

Thor looked at Tony with the most innocently confused expression on his face that even a baby couldn't rival. "He's…here…?" He said ending it like a question, asking but not quite voicing why Tony was reacting as such.

Tony looked at Thor for a few more seconds with wide eyes. Finally he mumbled something about insanity before stalking over to his bar. He picked up the nice scotch he had been drinking before, considered it, put it back, and picked up a different bottle that looked a lot less expensive. He took off the top and took a swig straight from the container. Only then did he turn, hand running through his hair, and ask, "Did he escape?"

Thor opened his mouth but hesitated. Why was he hesitating? WHY WAS HE HESITATING? "Er, no," Thor said finally.

"Come on Thor, I'm dying here – what happened?" Tony said, for once not keeping his cool as perfectly as he would have appreciated. The guy had freaking thrown him out of his own freaking window with no freaking second thought or freaking remorse. Freaking.

"Do not worry, friend. Loki has changed! His punishment was paid…in full… and he chose to come here to live peacefully. No longer did he wish to live on Asgard," Thor said. The last sentence held so much sadness and heart-break… But Tony didn't care. Loki was _here. _

"Thor, how '_here' _is Loki? Is he _here_, 'here'? Or is he like 'here' but far enough away '_here_' that he won't ever be _here_?" Tony said, worriedly. Tony definitely didn't want Loki _here. _He liked himself inside of the windows looking out, not smashing out the windows…

"Not to worry, friend Stark! Loki has promised he is starting new. He wants nothing from his previous life," again Thor sounded desperately sad but Tony couldn't care less right now. He needed… he needed to hear it from the one-eyed-wonder himself.

"If you'll excuse me for a second, Thor, make yourself at home…" he said distractedly as he walked out of the room for a call that would probably end with more drinking… 

Tony didn't see, or maybe he just didn't care, but Thor just nodded glumly and rested his head in his hands, for once having a different emotion than just 'hungry' or 'angry'. He was…depressed.

**Alrighty! There is your chapter! Review like crazy! I would like to apologize for taking too long, though, as stated previously I was on vacation for the past week so, yeah, life. **

**Anyway for the whole Renee thing I changed my mind. I gave him another power because during my whole writing rage that I go into when I really start writing he seemed really lame with just longevity sooo I decided that his brain is like hardwired for intense situations and he pretty much goes into genius mode and you can see it in his eyes. They glow when the cogs of his brain really start spinning and when his healing factor is kicking in… Also, I accidentally shot him. Sorry. Remember, though, he is the bad guy ;) Cheerio!**

**THE Phantom**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Alrighty then! Flame Baby Boy and Magneto! Yeah! Rock on brother and OWN IT! Ok, anyway:**

**Livingintomorrow: Ok this is actually taking place before X-Men Last stand did so he still has his powers, in fact I'm making Magneto and Xavier frenemies in this. That's what they were forever, right? I always thought they had one of the best/funniest relationships in all movie history (besides Watson and Sherlock, of course) but I digress…On with the show and all that jazz.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Everything was chaos.

Everyone was yelling and pointing fingers, blaming people.

Fury stood at the head of the conference room in Stark's tower and facepalmed. He had really hoped he could have avoided this…Well, maybe it was a good thing they had found out about Loki.

"There's no way his punishment was fulfilled!" Clint exclaimed.

"We're just gonna let him walk freely?!" Tony shouted, exasperated to no one in particular.

"We can't legally arrest him, Stark," Natasha scolded, "He's done nothing wrong."

"_Was_ his sentence completely filled?" Steve asked Thor.

"It was –"

"Oh, B.S.! There is absolutely no way!" Clint glared at Thor, his blue eyes flashing.

"OK!" Fury finally shouted to end the pointless circles they were running with their arguing.

"With all due respect sir, I'm going to shoot that –" Clint started.

"Watch what you say about my brother, Bird Man," Thor warned in a low voice.

Clint opened his mouth to give a smart reply, or maybe to beat Thor down for calling him 'Bird Man'. He was not a bird. Not. A. Bird. Hawkeye's a codename that fits. That's. It.

But Fury beat him to it, "_No one _is going to be shooting him, or harming him in any way. Currently he is just a civilian."

Banner raised an eyebrow but stayed silent, but Tony saw, "Banner, come on, buddy, help me out here: Loki cannot stay here!"

"Well, technically he's not actually a civilian yet until he gets an I.D. and applies for residency and gets a green card and whatever else might be necessary. _Technically_," he stressed as at least four pairs of eyes glared at him, "_Technically _he is still an illegal alien."

"Pun intended?" Tony asked, snarkily. He was just happy someone found a problem with this, even if the problem was that Loki didn't have a social security number.

"No, Stark," Banner said.

"But he does," Natasha said.

"He does?" Steve asked.

"He _does?!" _Tony repeated but with much, much more venom and incredulity.

"He does," Natasha said with finality. "I had took the liberty when I had easy access to high clearance computers to do some checking around and he has it all: birth certificate, social security number, high school and college diploma, I.D., drivers license… He even took the liberty to change his name to something else….was it Sharp? No it was something with an 's', though."

"I don't care if he has the Presidents kiss on his brow; I am not letting him stay here!" Tony said angrily with Clint nodding with.

"The point is, Stark, he's legit. He's done his time and got all the right papers. He's a free man," Natasha said, daring anyone to challenge her with her fierce gaze.

Tony slumped back in his chair, defeated…for now. Clint just glared at the table, not meeting Nat's gaze. He weighed his options: he could either kill Loki like he deserved and get charged with manslaughter by SHIELD – it's not like he hadn't escaped them before, but it was annoying to be on the run all the time – or he could follow orders and let the swine live…Was it worth it? He wasn't sure yet.

Fury nodded and cleared his throat, pulling Clint out of his dark ponderings. "So the real point of this meeting was not to hear you all argue but I actually had a mission to send some of you on and I needed you all to be here for what Thor has to say."

"Mission?" Thor asked, "What is this mission and what information do I have?"

_What _does _Barbie have to share? _Tony thought. Thor was so…dull.

"Yes, legally we cannot arrest Loki…but I think it would be worthwhile for you, Tony, to set up some very, very discreet cameras around his apartment complex and you, Natasha, to keep an eye on him for a while. We can't legally arrest him but we can keep surveillance."

Natasha nodded but Clint, Steve, and Bruce all looked a little confused, "What does this have to do with us, then, sir?" Steve asked curiously.

"That's what I want Thor to tell you. He's going to tell you all the events leading up to Loki coming back to earth and I want you _all,_" a pointed glare at Barton, "to hear it. Maybe it will change some of your minds on what should be done about Loki." Fury didn't really say the last sentence as a request or question…more of a…knowing remark, or maybe even a command.

"Oh," Thor said, eyes widening and skin paling.

"Well?" Banner prodded gently.

And so Thor told them…possibly in more detail than necessary, too. When he was done with his tale all that could be said was a quiet, "Oh," from Tony.

**XxX**

Renee looked around him, everything lit up like a glowing, golden blaze. He knew it was from how his eyes were glowing and he loved it. He loved this! He loved this high he got, how he could _understand everything _like this. He looked and he knew, he saw and he understood, he played…he _won._

The agents surrounding himself and the boy had guns raised and were pointing them at him and the kid. He knew – didn't even have to look, the change in immediate heat told him – the kid wasn't on fire anymore and he knew, he _knew _the agents didn't want to shoot the kid – he could see it in their eyes, the way the stood, their tics, the way their eyes shifted or the way two or three agents pointing guns at the kid had flicked on their safety.

He knew this and he laughed. He pulled out a gun, lightning fast – before the agents could react – and grabbed the child. He pointed the gun at the kids head and said, "I'm leaving now."

He couldn't hear it, but his voice was…insane, powerful, _knowing. _He _knew _the agents weren't willing to shoot the kid over a simple freedom speech. Heck, they had even been hesitant to shoot him. So he roughly dragged the kid along until they were far enough away from the warehouse that he couldn't even hear the noise anymore. He let the boy slip from his grip and holstered his gun again.

"C'mon, then," Renee said. His eyes were starting to cool down a little and he turned his back on the boy and walked down the alleyway, a roundabout way towards his Audi.

But he was still on his high and he knew the boy wasn't following him. He turned to glance back at the boy and saw him shaking and staring at him with wide eyes. "You were gonna shoot me!"

Renee facepalmed, "I wasn't really going to shoot you, you dull child. I'm leaving now. If you don't want to come, fine by me, but I you want to stick with team 'Win' hurry up – I don't like to wait." So he continued. He knew the kid would do what he thought best and he knew it wouldn't really matter if the child followed or not. He also knew that he couldn't really go home yet, he still had to see Bell and the speaker.

**Alright don't worry that's not it for this chapter! I'm now giving you a quick Loki preview. Basically showing you what Loki's up to these days while all these people do all the crap that needs to be done before Loki can be involved again. **

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" Lill pleaded. "Please, please, please, please?"

"No," Loki said, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"_Pretty _please?"

"The physical appearance of the 'please' makes no difference – I still say no," Loki said with an eye roll.

"But I _want to!" _Lill whined, peering in the box and squeeing with delight.

"We are so not getting a cat Lill," Loki protested.

Lill reached in and picked the cutest one up, one that was completely white with blue eyes and black lining her eyes making her look mysterious, "But they're _adorable!" _

"No," Loki now was struggling with keeping a straight face and only his years and years of practice at keeping a straight face kept him from bursting out laughing.

"I'll take care of it!" She said. She widened her eyes and tilted her face up so that the light glinted off her eyes, making her look like she was about to cry. He bottom lip pushed out and her eyebrows pulled together – all-in-all a rather pathetic expression.

"Just like you took care of the living room?" Loki raised his eyebrows, not fooled by her crying expression at all.

"PLEASE!?" She exclaimed loudly. The whole store glanced over at them and Loki put his head in his hand, the other one being clutched by Lill.

Loki sighed, still feeling the gaze of a few shoppers and the intensely sad, but still fake, expression on Lill's face, "Fine, fine, fine, fine! Just don't name it anything ridiculous."

"Yes!" Lill exclaimed fist pumping, and jumping up and down in a circle. She cuddled the cat to her face and it purred contentedly. "Hello Loki Jr."

"You can't be serious," Loki said, mortified.

Lill just looked at Loki mischievously from over the kittens head.

**Ok now that's the actual ending of this chapter! Aren't Lill and Loki just adorable together?! I just can't get over how cure they are! Yessshhhh :3**

**Review! Do it I dare you! Something cool will happen!**

**Phantom **


	10. Chapter 10

**Alrighty then. So. Yes. Next Chapter. I will continue writing Loki previews because he actually isn't necessary in these next few chapters so I'll just write Loki and Lill fluff as an extra so that it doesn't become untrue with the whole 'this story is about Loki' dish. Alright…So…**

**I would just like to say for a second that because I have yet to name Flamebabyboy that when I'm going from his POV it's directly first person instead of my usual third person like with everyone else…It'll change when I finally name him. Which has yet to be…**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Flameboy's POV

The man didn't really look that old – mid to late twenties at most. I watched him warily as he draped himself over a large rock – presumable to wait for the Diamond Lady. He was very…menacing looking.

The man had curly golden hair and light brown eyes. He was of average height, wire thin but roped with lean looking muscles making me think of a panther. He casually reclined on the rock and closed his eyes, resting his fingertips of his left hand on his forehead and temple. He had walked and walked for ages, coming to the edge of the industrial district which lined up with the river, hopped some rocks and soon he was on the other side in the small cover of the young forest growing there. I hadn't known what to do: follow the wack job or turn tail and go back to living normally – a.k.a. boringly.

On the one hand the man had dragged me for four blocks by the neck with a gun pressed against my temple but on the other hand…boring life was boring.

"Is your life so dull that suddenly just staring at me is of more entertainment than anything else?" The man asked sarcastically without cracking an eye. He still had his hand to his head and it looked like he was subtly massaging his temple with his fingers.

"Well, I – are you ok?" I asked. I don't know if I really cared or if I just was getting creeped out by the freaky position and the darkness surrounding him. I stood out of the tree line, in the moonlight, but he sat easily and without worry on the mossy rock…surrounded, dark, no light or fire, where anything could come and _get _him.

The man's eyes snapped open and they still held a tint of the golden glow and faintly glinted in the darkness. "I'm waiting," he deadpanned.

"I believe the child asked if you were ok, Rey-Rey, not what you're doing," a lilting female voice said. I whipped around trying to find the source but I couldn't see anything.

I turned around again, eyes probably the size of saucers to see the man – Rey-Rey – roll his eyes and sit up. "Stop playing games, Bell," he said.

"Oh, Renee," the voice crooned sweetly. Suddenly the diamond woman and Magneto walked out of the woods to the left of Renee, who was already looking in their direction.

The woman – Bell, I assume – walked over to Renee and sat on his lap and grinned seductively before, without anymore preamble, started snogging him. Right there. In the woods. Without a care. "Do get off," Renee said.

"I hate you," Bell said seriously as she got up with an overdramatic sigh and a sweep of her hand, brushing back a mass of dark curls. "Anyway, this is the man I was telling you about, Magneto."

Renee just nodded at Magneto. Just nodded. People don't just _nod _at Magneto. Magneto is a fourth level mutant. People don't just nod at fourth level mutants, ok? It's just not done. "Hello, Renee," Magneto said amiably totally overlooking the presumptuous nod. Then Magneto turned to me, "And you are?"

"Malik," I answered, shrinking slightly. Sure Magneto's totally awesome…but he's also clinically insane – according to me, that is – and someone insane with a lot of power should not be messed with.

"Malik," Magneto repeated. He tilted his head, scouring every inch of me.

If there was one thing you don't want to happen in life…you don't want an insane and insanely powerful being taking sudden interest in you.

**XxX**

"I hate the van," Tony grumbled, referring to the surveillance van he, Natasha, and a few SHIELD agents were currently situated in.

"Mr. Serrure and Ms. Mueller are currently gone and their tail says they will be occupied for the next three hours," another nameless SHIELD agent informed Natasha and Tony.

"Where are they?" Natasha asked as she stood to get out of the van, bag full of Stark patented equipment slung purposefully over her shoulder hanging precariously close to falling and smashing everything inside.

"The movie theater,"

"I hate this coffee," Tony moaned.

"Get it together, Stark we're currently on a mission, now _move!_" Natasha told Tony sternly as she pushed him out the door.

The van had been parked in an alleyway half a block from the building hidden in the shadows cast from the moon on the surrounding complexes. The agents had gotten the code for the complex and made a replica of the key to Loki '_Serrure's' _apartment leaving not much to do for Natasha but yell at Tony to do his job quickly and correctly.

"I hate walking," Tony complained as they made their way to the complex.

"The whole point of this is to get in, place the bugs, get out, and go back to the van without being seen by anyone, Stark. This means not being obnoxiously loud as you are now," Natasha said in a whisper that didn't even carry on the breeze.

"I hate being quiet."

…

"How many bugs do you have, Stark?" Natasha asked as she looked around the small apartment. It wasn't anything special, really, except for the makeshift art room at the back of the living room.

"I hate this room."

"How many bugs, Stark?" Natasha asked again. Tony absolutely did not want anything to do with Loki – even if he agreed he had paid his sentence it didn't mean he had to like the guy – and he showed it. Anything and everything Tony had encountered since their departure on this endeavor Tony had professed his hate for it. He hated long car rides, he hated the coffee in the van, he hated the van, he hated the computers in the van, he hated the bricks of the apartment complex, he hated the door, and he hated the key he had been given… It was becoming exhausting just to complete this simple task.

"Eight," came the grouchy reply.

"That's not going to be enough for all the rooms," Natasha stated. She wanted at least three bugs in each room and there were four rooms.

"I don't think so, sweet cakes. None of my equipment is going to be in their bathroom or bedroom."

Natasha rolled her eyes.

"No, seriously. Do you know what they probably do in that very bedroom?" Tony said seriously, sounding for all the world like a little kid who had just seen his parents kissing.

"Exactly what you do with a variety of humans every night in your bedroom?" Natasha suggested.

"Right you are, love, and they probably shower together too. In fact, they probably do it in the living room on that couch, too. Probably on the kitchen floor also!" Tony said as he clutched his bag of bugs close to his chest. He _so _didn't want anything to do with Loki.

"You're impossible, Stark," Natasha said as she stepped forward to grab the bag from Tony's hand who, subsequently, took a step back.

Tony gasped in a rather undignified way and spun around squealing, "What was that?!"

"Tony! Stop fooling around and set up the cameras!" Natasha said.

"Oh my God!" Tony said as he stared down at the white ball of fluff stuck to his pant leg by miniscule claws. "I…Hate…Cats!"

Natasha facepalmed, this night was _never _going to end.

**XxX**

"It was an otherworldly entity, bent on revenge. He lead a large armada of aliens to earth the exact his divine revenge on our lowly race," Magneto said sagely as he sipped his chilled drink. "He had almost no emotion for anything and had no remorse for all the people and mutants he had killed."

Bell's eyes shone and she nodded along furiously. She wanted revenge more than anything, it seemed. But Renee didn't understand. People don't just go on killing rampages without having been wronged first, "Why did he want revenge?"

"Does it matter? He was insane, sadistic, a sociopath with no boundaries. He killed countless people and injured hundreds more."

"What of it, though?" Renee wondered. "If this were to be so wouldn't the government have him? They would have punished him, capital punishment, most likely, or he would have been deported back to his alien planet."

"He's dead?!" Bell exclaimed disappointed.

"Yes," Renee said, incredulously.

At the same time Magneto leaned back and said, "No," with a warning in his voice.

"Um, what?"

All three heads turned to the boy, innocently sitting on a chair at the edge of the gathering in Renee's apartment. "What I mean is…" he started again, nervously, "Why do you care if he's dead. He _should _be dead for what he did," he said matter-of-factly.

"_Exactly!_" Bell exclaimed. "But by _my_ hands!" Her eyes glowed, vengefully.

Renee sighed and turned away from the people sitting in his lavish living room in favor of staring at the fireplace, seemingly enraptured with the roaring heat.

"Rey, stop being a child and quit pouting. He killed my husband: I kill him," Bell said sternly.

"I understand your need for vengeance, Bell, but…if he's not dead he surely isn't walking freely. We can't exactly just waltz up to him and shoot him. He's either in maximum security prison or on another planet!" Renee exclaimed. He…wasn't sure what he wanted anymore.

"Like that's stopped us before, Rey," Bell scoffed leaning back in her chair.

"Actually, I think I'm not up for that anymore, Bell, I'm not as good as I used to be," Renee lied, trying to deter the bloodthirsty woman. He didn't know why he was suddenly averse to the idea of killing or torturing the man – God knows he deserved that and much worse for ripping the last light from his life – but he…he knew he was getting in too deep, this time, and he wasn't sure he wanted to go down with this ship.

"Stop lying, love, you're always perfect at everything you do. You could do it – for me – even if he's not walking free –" Bell started as she slunk over towards Renee to continue her persuasion but was cut off by Magneto who had been observing their interactions throughout the night with carefully concealed confusion.

"Actually he is," he said. Renee, Malik, and Bell especially looked at his with open confusion, "He is walking free I mean."

"Explain," Bell demanded as she wiggled herself onto Renee's lap who made an annoyed sound but otherwise didn't protest.

Magneto raised an eyebrow – again, what exactly is going on here with these two? – but said, "He's here."

**XxX**

**Ok I had a sudden aversion to everyone that isn't Loki or Lill so now here is the Loki Excerpt of the chapter! YAY FINALLY RIGHT? Anyway, this ones gonna be a bit more depressing, I mean, no one could really go through all that and escape unmarred if you ask me so…**

Loki was stuck – not physically, but mentally – between the folds of wake and sleep, being dragged slowly, ever so slowly, into the folds of sleep. He was vaguely away of Lill in his arms but strange pictures and memories flew with sharp violence behind his eyelids even as he pulled Lill closer. He recognized it as the beginning of a bad night for sleep and tried to drag himself back to the land of the waking but found he could not. Usually when he was having a bad night for dreams and nightmares he was just stay up all night. This had worked just fine until it started happening with more frequency and soon he wasn't getting much sleep at all.

The dream nipped and pulled at the remaining edges of his consciousness and finally, finally, when he couldn't resist from exhaustion any longer, he slipped into the darkness, willing but afraid. He knew he would either end up waking screaming bloody murder or frozen and sweating, haunted for the remainder of the night and the coming day.

But he couldn't resist anymore. He was tired. Sleep was something he could grant himself, now that he wasn't under the "Other's" control he could sleep and eat and drink freely and he took full advantages of these things.

Unfortunately it was that thought that blossomed into his terror of the night.

_Loki looked around himself, blearily, he hurt all over and he was hot – too hot. He was in a dark room and he knew – in the way you _know _when dreaming – where he was and more importantly; when. It was his earlier days of imprisonment with the Other, when he had been hacking, tearing, and breaking Loki's mind down so that when it was sufficiently demolished he could mold it back together to the shape he so desired._

_In the earliest days the Other hadn't gotten too gruff with Loki's mind, yet, and had chosen to break and humiliate his body, first. Of the 207 bones in the humanoid body at least 50 were broken. Most of the bones in his right foot were splintered and cracked and a decent portion of his ribs were shattered as well. His collarbone was definitely broken, as a Chitauri Grunt had stomped on it with his heavy boot. Six of his fingers were broken in their first attempts at interrogating Loki and his nose was most likely broken as well. _

_He was miserable._

_Soon, all too soon, he heard the Chitauri and the Other coming again. This time was different, though. This time they didn't hold whips or chains or vices or any other sort of painful tool, they stood completely unarmed – well, besides their swords which they had yet to use on him – and the Other looked down on him._

"_You're so weak," he hissed. Loki flinched away. He didn't – couldn't – stand being talked to, addressed, or touched anymore. It meant pain. It all did. Pain, pain, pain. There was no escaping it anymore and as Loki flinched two guards came and hauled him into a sitting position. _

_A low wine escaped Loki's lips, partly from his abused body being moved and stretched in ways that aggravated his wounds and partly from his now ingrained fear of being touched. "Weak," the Other said again, disgustedly. _

_The Other reached his hands towards Loki's head and Loki thrashed to the side. He couldn't be touched – he couldn't. He was sorry, already, ok? He was sorry! "Now, now, don't make this worse," the Other hissed menacingly._

"_Sorry, sorry, sorry," Loki breathed. He kept repeating it like a mantra even as the Other started his mind apart, piece by piece. "Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry…" he wailed as his head exploded in stars of pain and ribbons of agony sliced through his very being, ripping, tearing, breaking, hurting._

_He couldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't. He was sorry. "Sorry…" Loki sobbed._

"_You are weak, Laufeyson," the Other yelled, harshly banging Loki's head against the wall. "SAY IT!"_

"_So weak…so sorry, sorry…"_

"Loki?"

"_I'm sorry, please…sorry…sorry,"_

"Loki! Wake up! Please!"

"_You are WEAK LAUFEYSON!"_

"_**LOKI!**_"

Loki wrenched upright, gasping and drenched in sweat. "I'm sorry…" he whispered, pain still lingering in the back of his mind.

Lill wrapped herself around him and said, "I know you are."

**Alright the end of this chapter! Woah! Sad Loki! Ok, I just realized a few things: 1. This chapter is longer than usual! 2. I have no idea where Magneto and company supposedly are. I know Loki and Lill are in New Yorkish but where the heckistan are Magneto and company? Eh, doesn't really matter. **

**Anyway: review as much as rabbits have babies!**

**Phantom**


	11. Chapter 11

**Alrighty check the bottom for an answer if you left a review.**

**Just so you all know: I'm writing this with a cuddly cat on my lap. Now you know ;)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Tony didn't have to be watching the audio/visual feed from Loki's apartment – in fact there were shifts and shifts of SHIELD agents to do that. He just…wanted to keep an eye on his equipment – or so he told himself.

He watched as the girl – _Lillian,_ he reminded himself – nibbled on the end of a paint brush, pallet in hand, and stared with certain intensity at the near-blank canvas. There was a sketch of something – abstract as far as Tony could tell – drawn lightly and with monumental care on the tightly pulled canvas. Suddenly the girl put down the brush and pallet, walked over to the small television and stereo combo and popped in a CD she had picked off the coffee table. She turned the volume up and over the feed Tony could hear a Taylor Swift song – it's country sound twanging its way through the apartment. Tony had met Ms. Swift once…she was nice.

Loki, who was kneeling on the rug at the coffee table doing the suspiciously normal act of doing their bills, looked up at the girl – Lillian, Lillian, Lillian, Tony! How hard is it to remember a single name? – and raised an eyebrow. Lillian refused to look at Loki though and started singing along with the song.

"_So don't you worry your pretty little mind_

"_People throw rocks at things that shine_

"_And life makes love look ha-a-a-ard_

"_The stakes are high_

"_The water's rough_

"_But this love is OURS!"_

Loki rolled his eyes and shook his head, going back to finishing the bills scattered in an organized chaos across the coffee table.

But it seemed as if the girl – _Lillian! – _wasn't done yet. She put the brush and pallet down again and went and made a big show of sitting down in front of Loki.

"_Don't you worry your pretty little mind  
"People throw rocks at things that shine  
"But they can't take what's ours  
"They can't take what's ours!"_

"_Lill," _Loki interrupted as he held up a hand, _"There is literally nothing you can do that –"_

"_Will make Taylor Swift your favorite Midgardian singer in the whole wide universe?!" _Lillian supplied eagerly with a grin.

"_No,"_

Lillian seemed to deflate as she pushed her lower lip out and looked as if she were about to cry. Loki just ignored her though and Tony could help but laugh at the situation…which made him feel weird: why was he watching this again? Oh yes: he didn't want to leave his equipment alone…right…

Suddenly the girls' face brightened and she perked up, _"You know, Loki, my birthday's coming up!"_

"_Yes, on the 13__th__," _Loki replied, again without looking up.

"_And…you know what I _really _want for this birthday?" _The girl asked, still grinning.

"_I'm pretty sure you own every Taylor Swift disc available on the face of this earth," _Loki said dryly, still continuing his bills.

"_Nu-uh!" _the girl exclaimed, widening her eyes theatrically. _"She _just_ released a new album!"_ The girl pushed her lower lip out again and folded her hands in front of her. _"Please?"_

"_No,"_

"_You're a bully, Loki,"_ the girl said with a pout. But she sighed and went back to painting anyway.

Tony laughed inwardly at the whole interaction and was so highly amused by the two he didn't even hear Thor's gallumphing steps as he entered the surveillance room they had set up.

"Stark!" Thor said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Oh," he said again, regaining his composure. "I was just keeping an eye on my equipment. If Loki breaks it he will not escape my wrath," he said half-jokingly. Why _was_ he in here?

But Thor took this reasoning without question and pulled up a chair next to Stark, "Does he seem well, friend Stark?" He asked. He really was worried about Loki, especially because he had forbidden Thor from interacting with him.

Tony tilted his head, seeing the concern etching it's way deeper and deeper into Thor's soul, "He seems…happy, Thor. He's ok, buddy, and if anything happens – we'll know. I promise."

Thor's face brightened and he gave Tony a brilliant smile. Thor nodded his thanks and Tony walked out of the room. Maybe that was it; maybe he wasn't really worried about his equipment…maybe – through his care for Thor – he was worried about Loki too.

Tony walked down the hall and shook his head, nah; he was definitely worried about his equipment.

**XxX**

"Oswego, Renee! He's so close!" Bell exclaimed for the fiftieth time that hour. It was around midnight thirty now and the man – Eric, Magneto? – had left. Malik had also wandered off after much persuasion from Renee's part and now Bell and Rey were alone.

Renee shook his head and took another sip of his drink. He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "Why doesn't everyone know about this guy?" Renee asked, bringing his free hand to his chin as he stared into the fire.

"It could be a road trip!" Bell said, still stuck on her own path of thought. "How long would it take to drive there, Rey-Rey? California to New York…a cross country trip, baby!" Bell laughed taking another gulp of her mojito. Not the first one of the night, either.

Renee sighed, they had already made this trip together, "Last time it took about five days traveling around eight or nine hours a day," he answered anyway.

Bell frowned, "We can do better than that."

"But do we want to?" Renee mumbled. He really didn't…he just didn't know anymore.

Bell sauntered over from her perch at the bar and stood in front of Renee, the fire the only light in the room, "Of course we do! Remember what he did, Renee! He killed my husband! He killed your daughter! He killed all those innocent people! Renee, tell me you're not thinking of just…forgetting it!" She squeaked, horrified at the notion.

Renee leaned back in his chair. She was right: the man had killed all those people…he had killed his daughter. Why should he forgive him? Why should that man walk free after the things he did?

"I know _I'm _not going to let that man continue walking free on this planet after what he did," Bell hissed, mirroring Renee's thoughts.

But that's just it. Renee and Bell…they had killed so many times in their pasts as well. Renee never lost a blink of sleep over it and he knew Bell hadn't either. He knew that he probably destroyed families by killing the father, he'd killed tons of people when a chase involving Bell, a bomb, and a concert went awry. He _never _thought about it. But now here they were, Bell and Renee, two murderers whose victims spread all across the globe, trying to plot the death of a man who was the same as them.

Thinking about it…Renee just wanted to forget all the things he had done. That man, that 'god' probably just wanted to forget as well.

"Renee, look at me," Bell commanded. After knowing someone for so many centuries you just know what they are thinking after a while. "We will be doing the world a favor…by killing that monster."

Renee nodded. He wasn't in it, though and Bell could see it, "We will never get a chance like this again, Renee! If we don't take our revenge now someone else will. We will never have a chance like this again!"

Bell could see Renee still wasn't convinced. What was he thinking about? They _had_ spent centuries together, though, so it couldn't be that hard to figure it out. Bell knelt in front of Renee's chair. She saw that he was worried…but what about? He wouldn't die. As far as either of them knew there wasn't anything in the universe that could kill either one of them. So what was it? He looked…melancholy. Guilty? Sad? Ah…he was thinking of the things he had done in his past. "Listen to me, Renee," Bell said, cupping Renee's cheek, half expecting him to pull away from her like he had all night but instead he leaned into the touch, "We…are not that man. What we did; it – they were all accidents," not really, "he just killed…all those people without a thought. He _needs _to be punished."

Renee closed his eyes and Bell worried he wouldn't be with her on this one. "Ok," Renee said quietly. Bell's eyes widened in surprise – he was with her on this! He was going to help her! "Let's go," he said, a determined look in his eyes.

**XxX**

Charles Xavier looked out on the grounds of his mansion-come-school and listened. Something hadn't been right, recently, he just didn't know what. He had tried talking to McCoy about it but neither of them could find anything.

"Charles?" a soft voice asked from behind him. He turned his chair a little and saw Ororo standing in the doorway of the balcony.

"Storm," he said warmly and with a smile but she didn't smile back. She looked at the ground and fidgeted with her sweater. "What troubles you?"

"Do you remember the attack on New York a while ago?" She asked, not really pinpointing what was distressing her, exactly.

Charles nodded, he remembered well: he had offered his and some of his older students' help but Fury of SHIELD – he knew him well, they had met several times in the past – had said that they had had it under control. Charles couldn't help but wonder what the real reason was that he didn't want them there. As far as Charles could tell they had almost failed protecting New York until Stark – the Iron Man – had flown the bomb through the portal.

"Well…" she continued hesitantly, "One of the students just came back from visiting family in Oswego, New York and…"

"Storm, what is it?" Charles pressed a little. He knew he could just read her mind but knew that Ororo did treasure her privacy. He just hoped that Director Fury had decided wisely on what to do with the 'god' – Loki, if he recalled correctly – who had lead the invasion.

"He says…well, do you remember the person who had lead the invasion?" she asked.

Charles sighed inwardly. The world, it seemed, couldn't find a minute of peace. "Yes," he answered simply.

"Well, he says that he was there, in Oswego," She answered finally.

Charles frowned. Fury had told him… "Thank you, Storm, I will take care of this."

Ororo nodded thankfully and walked back into the mansion.

Charles needed to call Fury.

**Alright! So we finally have some Charles Xavier action! YES! Ok if any of you have random info on the Xmen it would be fantastic if you could share it with me because I know very little. **

**Anyway this Loki-Peak is a continuation of the last one. I decided to start giving Lill some back-story so she wouldn't seem so much of a shadow or a fill, you know? And I had said that she had 'baggage' in earlier chapters so here is some of her 'baggage'…**

Lill woke up to the sound of a whimper. At first she just wanted to flip over and go back to sleep but...

"Sorry…" she heard Loki whisper. At first she thought he was talking to her for waking her up but when she looked over at him he wasn't even facing her. He was shivering and grabbing his arms, a grimace etched on his face.

"Loki?" she asked, sleepily. She touched his arm to get his attention but he jerked away.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," he said, letting out a gasp of pain.

"Loki? Wake up! Please!" Lill exclaimed. She knelt on the bed and grabbed his should, trying to make him face her.

"P-please…I'm sorry, sorry!" he muttered, flinching away again.

"LOKI!"

Loki's eyes snapped open and caught Lill's. She could see his terror and hurt as he said, "I'm sorry."

She didn't know what to do. She had heard about what had been done to him but…he had never gone into great detail. "I know," she replied simply, laying back down and curling up around his still-shaking form.

She knew he wouldn't want to talk about it – he never talking about his nightmares – but she had to ask, anyway. Someone had once told her that "talking about it" helped. So after letting him relax back into her arms she asked, "Do you want to tell me?" She knew he would say no but she knew these nightmares haunted him for days and even though he was awake now he was still trapped in his mind.

Loki stiffly shook his head, twisting so that he was holding her and pulled her closer.

Lill understood. She knew he didn't want to relive those moments…but she knew he wouldn't fall asleep again tonight so she started talking. Talking helps, right? "When I was just graduating from college," Lill started. She took a breath, she had hinted at this to Loki before but hadn't ever actually told him, "I was in a relationship…with a guy who wasn't…the kindest."

Loki lifted his head a little, signaling he was listening. But Lill didn't want to continue: she really, really understood why Loki wouldn't talk about his nightmares. But she continued anyway. Maybe telling Loki her past would help him tell her what was still hurting him. "A lot of people tried to tell me that I had to get out of that relationship but…it was a mistake. And one day, I came home from work and he had already been drinking all day. I…I guess you could say I 'saw the sign' that day," Lill choked out remembering how he had hit her.

Loki pulled her closer yet, understanding without her having to say what happened.

"And when I got a restraining order on him…he kept just showing up. It would seem random but it happened too many times, too soon. I knew he was stalking me," Lill said, voice cracking. She had to tell Loki this, she did. It would help, it _would help. _"He broke into my apartment one night, while I was away – thank God – and he _burned all _my paintings!" Lill cried. She was still so affected and upset about this…she cried and her voice cracked but she persevered. It would help. It would help her that she told Loki and it would help Loki see that…that it's ok to be hurt. It only matters what you do _after_ you were hurt.

"Lill…" Loki's voice was low and gravelly from sleep and his own anxiety, "You don't have to…"

"I do," Lill stated stubbornly. "I called it in to the Police and he was charged with breaking and entering and destroying of property. While he was still in jail I moved. I had only been here in Oswego for a year and a half before you decided to stumble in," Lill said trying to joke lightly at the end but failing miserably as her voice cracked again.

"I…" Loki said uncertainly.

"Loki I understand that you don't want to talk about it, so you don't have to," Lill said, regaining some of her composure.

Loki was silent for a while, but Lill knew he hadn't fallen asleep. Lill glanced at the clock and it read 2:47 am. What a glorious time to have breakdowns and breakthroughs.

"Let's go," Loki whispered as he got up and slipped on some jeans and a tee.

"Where are we going?" Lill asked, surprised at the turn of events going on.

"It's a surprise," he whispered back as he picked up a duffel back and put some articles of clothing in it that Lill couldn't see.

…

"IT'S SO COLD!" Lill shrieked at Loki who had jumped into the lake and had run back and hugged Lill.

"Let's go!" he laughed.

And they did. And they swam. And it was cold. But it was perfect.

**So this is a longish chapter for you guys! Remember to comment and post random info on the Xmen for me and Magneto that would be fantastic!**

**AnnDroyd: Thanks so much, you know what for! I do thank you for telling me Magneto's name was Eric I totally forgot. I do invite you to write random psychology advice on how some of these messed up characters might actually be acting and – because you seem to know – feel absolutely free to write X-Men info! GO GO GO! Thanks again.**

**Phantom**


	12. Chapter 12

**On with the show, then! So in this chapter we're going to have some nosy Stark, curious Banner, annoying Bell, concerned Charles, and finally another **_**fun **_**Loki peak. This chapter's gonna be a little lighter in the mood spectrum because no one is killing anyone, yet, they're all just, sort of, getting ready to kill each other. **

**Disclaimer: I own only what is mine ;D**

Tony reclined in a swively chair in his lab as he listened to the conversation between Fury and another man he had eventually identified as Professor Charles Xavier, the mutant professor over in California. The connection wasn't very good and anytime Dummy or any of the other robots made any sort of noise he rather harshly reprimanded them saying the he couldn't hear this conversation he wasn't supposed to be hearing.

"_Yes, he is here," _Fury said simply. Charles and Fury talked almost as if they were equals, which is strange because Fury talked down to _everyone. _

"_Everyone is safe?"_ Charles asked. It seemed as if he wasn't going to yell at Fury as Stark and the rest of the Avengers had but just trust his judgment…

"_He was perfectly civil the whole time we had him detained – that is until he smashed the hulk-proof cell we had him in," _Fury said dryly. Tony could just imagine the exact frown on Fury's face at that moment – and it was comical.

"_That doesn't sound exactly civil, if you ask me, Director," _Charles said, going all '_Director'_ on Fury.

"_Let me rephrase that: he was perfectly civil until he learned we had broken a deal we had previously made with him to get him to come."_

"_And the deal was?" _

"_Loki promised he would come willingly if we left the girl who had been sheltering him alone," _Fury said. He was never one to forget a deal so why he had thought Loki would be ok with a broken deal was beyond Tony.

"Tony, have you seen my –" Bruce started as he walked into the lab.

"Sh-sh-sh!" Tony said waving a hand at him and turning up the volume of the call.

"What are you doing?" Bruce asked anyway.

"Listening," was all Tony said.

"_When can we expect you?"_ Fury asked.

"Good job, Brucey, now I don't know what they said," Tony hissed, annoyed. He pulled up his best pouting face he could muster – the one that still worked on Pepper – and frowned at Bruce.

"…_and a few of my students," _Charles was saying.

Bruce rolled his eyes at Tony and said, "I'm pretty sure it's illegal to hack into these kind of high-clearance calls, Tony."

"…_two days, Charles," _Fury said as he ended the call.

"Well, I had the capability, so I took it," Tony said snootily, still pouting about his call being interrupted.

Bruce rolled his eyes again and started shuffling through everything in the lab looking for whatever widgets or whatsits he had wanted and said, "Who was Fury talking to?"

"Oh, _now _you want to know?" Tony asked, "Well, I'm not telling."

"I could just find out myself, you know," Bruce said, threateningly placing a hand on a nearby computer.

"Gah! Don't touch that! You might be dirty!" Tony exclaimed, jumping up. Bruce wiped his hand down the side of the whole screen and Tony nearly had a seizure, "Ok, ok, ok! He was talking to Charles Xavier, you know: the mutant professor?"

"Oh," Bruce said, "Ok." With that he walked back out of the lab with a small device in his hand and a much annoyed Tony left in his wake.

"Hey, hey wait! You can't – that was – !" Tony whined as Bruce walked out.

**XxX**

"Are we there yet?" Bell whined playfully.

"I'm seriously considering throwing you out the window," Renee groaned. He absolutely hated that question. How can one _not _know when they are there? Could you not see by your surroundings that you're obviously _not there yet?_

"You wouldn't do that to me!" Bell laughed, leaning over and pecking Renee on the cheek.

Renee brushed a hand across his cheek, annoyed, and said, "It's not like you wouldn't survive it."

"Don't be so pouty, Renee…ooh! Can we make a 'rest' stop?" Bell asked, adding air quotations around 'rest'.

"What are you talking about? We left three hours ago…oh," Renee said as he caught sight of the big, flashy casino. "No, no pit stops. You're the one who wants to get there fast, anyway!"

"I hate you."

"I know."

**XxX**

**Eh, I got tired of those two after only 135 words… So now we're going to have another Loki peak which will be happier, I promise. I would like to apologize for making this chapter shorter than originally planned but I had a sudden aversion to playfulness – which makes no sense seeing as playfulness is nearly my specialty XD Anyway: BOOM! Loki.**

**P.S. I know these Loki peaks are rather disjointed so I have to remind you all that they aren't necessarily chronological tellings of Loki and Lill's doings, they're just kind of like short stories about…life!**

Lill glanced over at Loki who was walking next to her down an alleyway in the neighborhoods that she liked to refer to as 'The Sunny Town'. She looked at it this way: in every city and town there's always that part of town that you just _know _to avoid and therefore there is also that one part of town that is just perfect. The yards are all kept nicely, kids bike around the blocks on their training wheels, and people host family barbeques almost every night. You just _know _that it's a good neighborhood, here, so, Lill had decided to bring Loki here: somewhere _good._

As Loki and Lill walked through the neighborhood Lill, much to Loki's amusement, caught the sound of an ice cream truck and had dragged Loki two blocks chasing the vehicle. Lill had promptly ordered two King Cones and thanked the man as he drove away. Loki, though, was not accustomed to the tradition known as "The Ice Cream Man" and had stood with a doubtful expression carved on his face, broadcasting his dislike for buying ice cream off an exceptionally scraggly looking man driving a singing vehicle. Lill had found it hysterical.

"I think this is important," Lill stated to Loki.

"That was random," he replied without even missing a beat.

"Ask what I think is important, Loki, I dare you," Lill said with a smile as she looked up at Loki.

"Fine… What do you think is important, Lillian? Your random statements interest me so much!" Loki said giving a weak fist pump to accompany his sarcasm.

Lillian frowned at Loki and stuck out her tongue but continued on, mostly undeterred, "I think people and places like _this _are important."

Loki didn't speak for a moment, tilting his head in consideration, obviously not expecting a relatively serious statement. "Why?" He finally asked.

"Because it proves that, well," Lill paused waving a hand vaguely through the air, "that these things like happy endings…are possible."

Loki scoffed and rolled his eyes. Happy ending don't happen, not ever.

"Good things do happen, Loki," Lill said seriously, stopping them in the middle of the alleyway. She grabbed his arm to force him to look at her.

"Not to me, love," Loki said with a small and heartbroken smile.

Lill tilted her head and forced Loki to stay where he was with her death grip on his hand. She knew that he loved her and she knew he cherished every moment they had had together so she couldn't figure out what he meant when he said the good things don't happen to him. "I'm a good thing, aren't I?" she said, already knowing the answer: of course she's a good thing but…but what? What was the problem?

"Of course!" Loki said looking to just continue the walk and end the conversation.

"But…?" Lill pressed jerking his arm to make him stop walking.

Loki looked back at Lill, considering her: she had enough trouble in her own life, he had found and didn't want to trouble her anymore, "But nothing, this is perfect. Good things do happen."

Lill narrowed her eyes at Loki, "Why won't you just tell me? What's the problem?"

"Lill, please, just drop it –"

"Can't you just tell me?!" Lill asked, her voice rising as she got more upset.

"Lill!" Loki said, running a hand through his hair, "It's just that I, well…"

"Well, what, Loki? Tell me!"

"Lillian!" Loki exclaimed, again. He looked at her again and seemed to deflate, "Lill, think about who I am and who you are, think about it – just for a moment and you'll understand."

"Loki, don't make me guess, here, just tell me, please?" Lill pleaded, now thoroughly upset.

"Lill, I'm sorry," Loki said pulling her into a hug before quickly stepping away, well aware of her anger, "but…I'm immortal and…you're not."

Lill looked at Loki for a second, not quiet understanding. He's immortal and she's not? Well of course she's not immortal, she's a human! She had to die eventually…oh. Loki thought good things never happened to him because now, now that he was happy…it would only be briefly. She would leave eventually and tear a larger hole in his soul than before. She understood now, why he thought good things never happened to him. He would have to endure even after she was gone.

_Good things do happen, Loki._

_Not to me…_

**Ok, bye, bye until later! I'm suddenly bored and I want to have dinner so, later!**

**Phantom, OUT!**


	13. Chapter 13

**OOOOK! So… What's going to happen here is that Renee and Bell take longer to get to New York than expected because of "pit stops" at the casinos and other troublesome things Bell gets herself into. Now, there is a reason for this tomfoolery: this is all so that Charles can have a chance to look at Loki and be all like, "Hm, hm, yes, yes," all therapist/psychiatrist on him! Boom! So this chapter won't have any actual X-men in it, though, because I want you guys to vote on who Charles should bring along (e.g. Storm, Hank, Wolverine, blah blah blah and so forth) !**

**Go and Vote!**

**Disclaimer: no.**

**P.S. a quick Loki dream…**

"_No, Loki."_

_Loki knew it, felt it in his cold, hard heart before Odin even said it – he knew he was going to reject him. His heart clenched and his chest constricted, his throat squeezing in on itself and going completely dry. He couldn't believe he ever actually thought he could get Odin's approval and now that he looked back on what he had done all he could think was how absolutely _foolish_ it had been. Nothing would satisfy Odin – nothing ever would and he now saw that no matter how _hard_ he tried he would never be enough. Loki would have said so too, but he couldn't speak for all the pain in his chest. His eyes flicked up to Thor's blue eyes begging him to just come back to Asgard and Loki could see that Thor thought everything _would _just go back to the way things were before. Loki knew it wasn't true._

_Loki's thoughts flickered through his brain at a thousand miles per second and he couldn't stop the next thought from flitting through his head before he had already let go of the staff and fell into the dark, swirling, mesmerizing abyss. He didn't _want _things to go back to the way they were. He hadn't been happy that way, anyway. Loki, who always got the second best of everything, Loki, who suffered through countless punishments – excruciatingly physical to disorienting and confusingly convincing mental punishments – at the hand of the council for things he hadn't done, Loki, who would always, _always _be doubted because of his titles, Loki, who hadn't had an informal or familial conversation with his father since he was ten, Loki, who was looked down on by all society for his practice – no matter that he had become one of _the best _at it, Loki, who had been beaten at in _everything Asgardian_ and then _laughed at_, was done. Why would he want to go back to that?_

_The abyss was preferable. _

Loki whimpered gently in his sleep and rolled over, unable to fully wake up and easily pulled back into the dream.

_The swirling mass of black, billowy space enveloped him quicker than expected and pressed in on all sides, freezing him when it shouldn't have even felt chilly, burning him, compressing him until, even though he was falling through space – the largest place anywhere, ever, he felt claustrophobic. Things started flying past him and words floated through the air, the record of all things that had ever happened in Yggdrasil, all the secrets, all the memories and languages. Loki's mind took it all in but the knowledge of the universe was never meant for one man to know and soon he started losing grip on reality – as real as anything can be while hurtling through space, that is – _

Loki sat up with gasp, clutching his head. The dream was an awful reminder of what he now knew. He knew a lot – everything – even as he tried to erase his own memory of his time in the abyss his magic would take other memories along with it. Most of the time it would be small things he wouldn't remember: a harmless prank played when he was young, a day sitting with Frigga in the gardens, little things, harmless things, things that wouldn't be missed. But Loki knew he had to be careful: erasing memory was a tricky business…

**XxX**

Natasha, now Rosalie Burkey, walked down the street carrying a messenger bag and following Lillian and Loki as they walked towards the convenience store at the corner of the block.

"We needed flour, right?" Lillian asked.

"Look at the list," Loki said.

"Oh, yeah!" Lillian started going through all her pockets and her purse but soon gave up and looked at Loki, "I don't have it."

Natasha could practically hear Loki roll his eyes, "Let's just go grab it, then." Lillian and Loki turned around to walk back to the apartment and Natasha turned to the street, looking both ways, just for show, and quickly walked across, entering the little barbershop on the other side of the street.

"How may I help you?" asked a perky young man with a spiky halo of hair.

"Oh," Natasha feigned confusion, "Is this 517 Indiana Ave.?"

"No, I'm afraid you've got the wrong place; that's a few blocks west of here," the young man said turning to point her in the correct direction, spiky hair sparkling in the sunlight coming from the window.

"Oh, thanks!"

"No problem," the young man said, "I'm Alec by the way," he said with a sweet smile.

_Of course you are,_ Natasha thought. How young did she look? He couldn't have been older than 25, "I'm Rose."

"Nice to meet you," another sweet smile. From the corner of her eye Natasha could see Loki and Lillian walking back out of the apartment building and she turned to walk out the door, "I have to go, though: meeting!" She gave him wistful smile and brushed out the door.

Natasha stayed on the other side of the road this time and walked slowly behind the pair and watched carefully, taking everything in as she had been doing for the past few days. Loki and Lillian had been doing nothing but completely normal activities and Natasha was quickly getting bored of this assignment. Loki had recently gotten a job with the local newspaper, Lillian went to her place of work Wednesday through Friday and then again on Monday's, the pair went out regularly and went about being 'guerilla artists' which, Natasha later found, was the art of making sculptures and paintings and the like and leaving them in public places – no signature, no explanations. Sometimes it was amusing…sometimes Natasha felt she should clean it up before anyone else saw it. But it was getting tiring and pointless. As soon as Loki and Lillian entered the convenience store Natasha pulled out her cell phone and dialed Fury.

"Fury," Fury answered.

"I want off of this assignment," Natasha said, getting to the point right away.

The line was silent for a few seconds before Fury said, "Why?"

"They aren't doing anything. Surely the tape from Tony's surveillance videos is enough?" Natasha asked glancing into the store and seeing Loki walk down an aisle with Lillian holding a box of Oreos above her head following him in little skipping steps.

"I must admit I had been thinking of taking you off of this, myself…" Fury said slowly and Natasha could just imagine him sitting at his desk filling out the dreaded paperwork. "So…"

"I'll finish the week, but…"

"I actually have a different assignment for you tomorrow. Finish the day and then come to the base in New Mexico."

Natasha smiled to herself, relieved that she wouldn't have to follow Loki around for another week and said, "Yes, sir."

**XxX**

"_No worries!"_ Lillian said, splaying out her hands as she gestured about wildly, trying to explain how this would ever work. Of course, she wasn't worried: she _never _got caught – and it was great. "So little faith!" She exclaimed, placing a hand over her heart and feigning hurt and surprise.

"It's not my lack of faith in _your _abilities, my dear, it's my monumental faith in the local police's ability that is worrying me," Loki said with a flip of his hair. Lillian watched as he stretched himself out on the couch and wanted to laugh as his feet hung off the couch by at least a foot and a half.

"Pah-lease! What would they charge us with?" Lillian said, waving her hand airily.

"Destruction of property or possibly vandalism," Loki replied firmly.

"It's no harm, though! Come on, come on, come on, Loki!" Lillian pleaded. Lillian could see the minute Loki caved: even though his eyes were closed she could see him roll his eyes. Being a Guerilla artist was a dangerous business in terms of getting caught…but in her past experience – and no matter how much she would brag and boast; she had been caught before – it was only a small fine and you just had to clean it up! Not that bad, if she did say so herself.

"Fine," Loki said, getting up.

"Great! Okay, you have to start on yours' then…"

…

"I think we did a fine job, if I do say so myself," Lillian said with a satisfied smirk as she looked at the banners flying from the light posts lining the road. Some were abstract and colorful, others where depictions of enchanting nature scenes, and others were witty saying, and a few even broadcast again texting and driving.

Lillian looked over at Loki who had a gentle grin on his face and she reached over to take his hand. He had bags under his eyes and looked pretty tired so Lillian said, "We should get back home, I'm getting tired."

Loki looked at her and nodded. He really was tired but…she needed to do one more thing. "We need the picture for our Guerilla book!"

"Oh, yes, let's not forget the scrapbook that will one day incriminate you," Loki laughed quietly.

"I never forget," Lillian smiled.

**K, what did I say, people? I said updates would be few and far between and I am sorry for making you all wait for so long but school and all my activities were all like, "Hah! No free time for you!" and then my best friends niece was all like, "Let's dance!" and then my other best friend's daughter was all like, "Cake in my face!" and then my twin baby cousins were all like, "Roller Coasters and a broken arm!" and then school was all like, "Large projects that take excess amounts of time that are unnecessary!" and then…well, you get the idea. So? What did you think? **

**Don't forget to vote for which X-Men you would like to have an appearance!**

**Phantom**


	14. Chapter 14

**So life has been difficult lately, in more ways than one, so here I am: sitting at the computer and typing away listening to disturbing music and bothering you all with it. Anyway. So. Have I said I love Loki, recently? **

**Disclaimer: No. **

Charles sat alone in the surveillance room watching the half-dozen screens of Loki's home. He had agreed to come for more reasons than one. He wanted to help however he could but he also wanted to conduct his own type of surveillance on Loki. He wanted to study him, figure him out, feel his mind, find out what made him…him.

Charles and his companions had been welcomed with open arms upon their arrival at the SHIELD headquarters and there was no wasted time. As soon as the jet touched down a team of SHIELD agents, clad in black gear and helmets, came and escorted them to a meeting room where they were debriefed by Fury and then shown to the rooms they would be staying in for the duration of their visit. Storm, who had brought a whole backpack full of books on Norse mythology, article clippings, and SHIELD reports she had somehow gotten her hands on, immediately situated herself in a commons area and continued reading with a certain intensity that suggested no one should bother her. Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, who had come "for the hell of it" had quickly sought out the famed Captain America who had been sparring with Thor, the brother of Loki, and asked – demanded, more like – if he could spar with them. Hank had taken a fast liking to the notorious 'Bruce Banner' and they both went on a long and rather scientific discussion about the genetics of mutants and Banner himself.

Charles had gone straight for the surveillance room.

Fury had asked Charles to come because he had wanted to see if he could get into Loki's head with his telepathic powers – it was a long shot but if that didn't work Charles was still possibly the best psychologist alive today and if Charles could provide any insight on Loki at all – any little detail – it would help. Charles was happy to help, of course, but he wanted to be extra careful about this… Apparently Loki wasn't too bad with mind games either and if that was so he would most likely be able to tell the minute Charles even looked at his mind. Maybe he could try and contact Loki through his mind while he was asleep. He had read the reports from the previous tapes of the video just outside the bedroom; according to the reports Loki was a restless sleeper, night terrors clawing at him almost every night. Some nights the girl would scream him awake and other nights he would stumble out of the bedroom alone and sit at the table, head in hands, and stay there for the rest of the night. If Charles contacted him in his sleep and Loki detected him maybe Charles could convince him he meant no harm and offer him and more effective method for a dreamless sleep. If Loki didn't detect Charles, maybe he would have a chance to glimpse what these night terrors were. He would have to try tonight.

…

"Where is my science bro?" Tony asked obnoxiously loudly to any listening ear.

A sorry SHIELD agent raised an eyebrow in Tony's direction, "With Mr. McCoy."

"What?!" Tony exclaimed dramatically pulling at his hair. Tony was such a child, and not sometimes, but all the time.

"He is with Mr. Hank McCoy," the agent repeated slowly as if talking to a particularly dull child.

"Oh, get me a drink, peasant!" Tony said flailing an arm wildly and pointing at the agent and then at the general direction of the door. He knew he acted like a complete jerk-child but that doesn't mean he liked to be treated like one.

"Don't do that," came a sharp command.

Tony wheeled around to see Lady Natasha Romanoff herself striding through the doors in all her black widow-ey glory, glaring vehemently at Tony.

"But I just want a drink!" Tony complained reverting back to his spoiled child voice. The agent who had been talking to Stark took the opportunity to leave as Natasha strode towards Tony, presumably to hit him…or just insult him in every way and language she knew – which might have been worse.

…

"Ugh," Lillian grunted as she flopped onto the couch next to Loki, "That was possibly the most boring and awkward dinner of my whole entire life."

"Sh!" Loki laughed, "They're just out the door, they might still hear you!"

And it was true: they had _just _ushered Lillian's parents out the door after a painfully long dinner of boring conversation and quick thinking and lies when Loki was asked about his past. Lillian had spent all day trying to cook something that would seem like she didn't eat burnt eggs with her playful boyfriend every morning and actually ate healthy and sophisticated. Loki worked all day, came home to find the two parental units of his love, and nearly imploded from trying not to laugh.

"Oh, that was absolutely dreadful!" Lillian complained, louder this time.

The two laughed and changed into their usual home clothes – a.k.a. sweats and baggy tee's. Loki switched on a movie they had started the night before and halfway to the ending spoke up, "I've come to a conclusion."

"And that is?" Lill asked, covering a yawn.

"Strict – or boring, in your care – parents create sneaky and creative children," Loki said as he settled further into the couch.

"Ugh, do you want to know what they made me do when I was younger? It was dreadful!" Lill said dramatically.

"What horrible atrocity did they commit?" Loki asked, humoring her.

"They tried to enforce a nine o'clock bedtime – even on Fridays! This was – and no joke, I'm not even kidding – when I was even in high school! Our fire escape rope ladder got a ton of use, I must say…" Lill said, dissolving into small giggles at the memory.

Loki laughed at the thought of Lill climbing out her window on a Friday night and rolled his eyes: his conclusion was entirely correct.

…

Charles didn't need to be in the surveillance room to connect with Loki's mind but he thought it couldn't hurt. When he had entered the surveillance room he had found that Loki and the girl, Lillian, had fallen asleep on the couch together with the television still playing some old Jacky Chan movie.

He was nervous but…there's no time like the present.

He leaned back in his chair and focused on Loki, bringing their minds together and carefully – oh, so carefully – trying to see what was going on in that head of his.

He was surprised when he was immediately swept into Loki's mind and even more surprised by how it…felt. Even in sleep there was more going on in his mind than what went on in a normal persons mind during their most trying times. Thoughts and equations, songs, poems, rituals, and facts flowed through his mind like a torrent, a flooded river, and Charles was swept along with it. He had never experienced anyone whose mind was like this and he wanted to reach Loki's mind's mind.

After fighting tooth and nail for what seemed like an eternity against the swirling, thundering mass of thoughts and knowledge crashing through Loki's mind Charles finally caught on something…a voice or a whisper, a memory, maybe.

Charles planted his metaphorical feet on the spot and reached for that memory, trying to see and understand, trying to find Loki in this swirling mass of knowledge. After prying and pushing and tearing open the memory Charles was finally sucked into what was actually Loki's dream. Loki was dreaming.

Charles watched as a painfully malnourished figure shook in the corner of a small room, shivering from the cold that Charles couldn't feel and soaked in its own blood.

As he watched another creature entered the dream, grotesque and hulking, and shoved what would be the equivalent of a needle into the forms – which he now recognized as Loki – neck, injecting a large amount of translucent grey liquid. Loki's eyes widened and let out a small groan of pain and he tried backing further into the corner.

After that creature had left Charles watched in horror as more of the same creatures poured in with different implements of torture and decided it would end here. He shook his head and walked towards Loki – in Charles mind he could still walk and so when going on telepathic ventures his mental image walked of its own accord – and gripped the boy's shoulder. "Loki, come with me," he said gently as he shook his shoulder.

The physical contact of the mental projections seemed to shatter the dream and as the remaining shards of the dream clattered into nothingness Loki let out a pained gasp as he, too, transformed back into his normal state. He was knelt on the ground, hands on his knees, and head hanging as he took in ragged breaths. "Who are you?" he finally gasped out between labored breaths.

"I am Charles Xavier," Charles answered as he looked at the man in front of him, completely broken and exposed for the world to tear at him.

"What do you want from me?"

Charles flinched when Loki asked this because it sounded as if…as if he expected anyone who came into contact with him to…hurt him – take something from him – break him.

"I just want to help," Charles said as sincerely as he could.

Loki's green eyes flashed up to Charles' and they were filled with doubt and hate for the universe in general.

"I highly doubt that statement."

**You are all pleased, yes? Good! So who here has read my other story I started because I was bored? It's pretty random! Anyways: commentary on this chapter…IDK I just needed things to get done, ok? So Charles is there, now! Yay!**

**Review or else.**

**Phantom**


	15. Chapter 15

**Boom! Boom! Boom! …Muffins. **

**Disclaimer: no.**

"Think, Renee Jamie Griffith, think!" Bell glared at the screen of the laptop as she punctuated each word with a kick to Renee's chair.

"I can't just hack into one of the most secure databases in the entire world, Abella. It's just not done," Renee said, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair. They had finally – _finally – _gotten to Oswego, New York and were now sitting in a plush hotel suite focusing on Renee's very own, homemade, and more advanced than anything found on the market, laptop. This laptop wasn't used for just anything: it was only ever taken out of its locked briefcase for cases like this: when Renee needed information he couldn't regularly get his hands on.

"What is the matter with you? You used to do this all the time! All we need is some information!" Bell complained, pacing across the living room of the hotel room and flopping down onto one of the over-stuffed couches.

"I only ever did it when my life – and sometimes yours – depended on it. I've never had to do anything like this for pleasure, Bell," Renee said, glaring at the black haired woman.

"Oh, that's why you did all those things with me, Renee? To protect yourself? I was under the impression you were at least having a little fun…I know I was," Bell said, still crabby.

"I just can't do it anymore!" Renee defended himself. He knew he had had fun those times…he knew he was lying, but he had changed and wouldn't use his mutations like that anymore: not to hurt people – even if that person was a hugely renowned criminal. It wasn't his place to do so.

"Why not, Rey? Why won't you do it? It used to be so easy for you," she said. She turned away from Renee and even though he couldn't see it Renee knew she was pouting.

Renee rolled his eyes and shut his laptop down; he wouldn't need it.

"Is this because of what happens after?" Bell asked suddenly. She got up to stand in front of Renee who had put his laptop away and was making his way towards the door.

"What?" Renee asked, confused at first.

"Is this because of what happens after?" She repeated, "Because if it is you know I've always been there for you. When have I ever left you after?" She was truly getting upset now and was screaming at Renee. Renee could only hope the other tenets of the hotel weren't here or were already asleep.

"Bell," Renee said firmly, "That is _not_ what this is about." _And besides, you always left me,_ Renee thought bitterly.

"Then why won't you do this for me!?"

"It's not that I won't, Bell! I can't do it! I can't do it anymore unless I really need it," Renee said, shaking his head as he walked out the door, leaving an angry woman in his wake.

…

Renee came back to the hotel room later that night after spending a while in the hotel bar and cooling down. He couldn't do it. He was done with the killing – it was enough. Maybe he had finally grown up a bit; maybe the world had purposely given him his longevity as a way of allowing him to do just that: grow up. Think rationally – what are the consequences? Be responsible – he could – but should he? He was done with this and he would tell Bell the moment she woke up in the morning, or when she wandered in from wherever she might have gone while he was drinking himself into a daze.

He slid the key into the door and walked into the room to find all the lights off – Bell must have gone to sleep after all. He put the key on the kitchen counter and started making his way toward the bedroom. As soon as he opened the door Bell pounced on him, diamond hand encasing his neck and other hand holding a knife, "If you can only do it if your life depends on it," Bell whispered menacingly, "You should have no problem doing it now."

…

"_I just want to help."_

"_I highly doubt that."_

Charles shook his head as he thought back to that statement: how could someone become so hurt that they couldn't even believe someone when they said they wanted to help? Was that the present Loki speaking or had that been a memory of himself saying those bitter words? The present Loki had the girl, Lillian, and from what he had been told by Fury and other SHIELD agents Loki had seemed…better, less crazed, happy even. From what Charles had witnessed in that dream and the short conversation they had had afterwards Loki was a phenomenal actor and was also, unfortunately, suffering from a terrible case of PTSD.

…

Loki blinked back the tears furiously – there was no reason to cry; he was safe, no one could harm him anymore. The person who had taken him from his dream was no one, probably just another allusion he created for himself to keep from going completely insane.

But he had seemed so real! Had he mentioned his name? Loki couldn't remember…he had never experienced such a thing before and he didn't like when he didn't understand. He had always been able to trust his own senses but when the day came that he couldn't trust his own eyes and ears…he was sure he was losing grip on reality. Something wasn't right.

Loki sat up from his bed and walked into the living room, putting his head in his hands. Maybe his mind was just overflowing with what he had seen in the void – yes that was it. The person in the dream was nothing but a memory from Yggdrasil. That had to be it.

Loki internally prepared himself for what he had to do. He had been wiping his memory more and more lately and was getting addicted to it; the ability to become oblivious, the ability to forget, the ability to take oneself away from ones past horrors and failures.

He took a deep breath and started gently massaging his temples…he deserved this: he deserved a break, a reprieve. He focused his thoughts onto the things he wanted to forget and sent his magic to his fingertips and started cleaning away the stain those thoughts and that knowledge had created on his mind. Even though he was careful he always ended up erasing a few extra things as well. It was as if you were cleaning with bleach: no matter how hard you tried it seemed as if you always ended up bleaching your clothes as well.

Loki stayed and blotted out the knowledge of Yggdrasil for longer than he had ever before and he lost other things along with it – he knew he did – but it felt too good to forget the knowledge and the memories of his time with the Chitauri he didn't care what he lost along with it. This was worth it. Forgetting those things was worth it.

Loki stayed and bleached away his memories, one after another, until he could barely remember the events between Thor's banishment and when he had met Lillian. Other things were lost. Little things were lost. But to Loki…it was worth it.

**Uh-oh! Loki's gonna regret this, I can tell! What is he all forgetting? This seems dangerous…desperate, even. Poor Loks! I just want to hug him! Boo! **

**And also: BAD BELL, BAD! **

**Kay, anyway: start reviewing people, I mean really! I love reviews they make me happy! Especially since I'm about to go clean my house. With bleach…and yes that's why I used that analogy: not only is it useful but I had bleach on the mind…**

**Phantom, OUT!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Yeesh! I made a few minor mistakes in the previous chapters…I went back and fixed them but to those of you who already read them…sorry ;P it was an accident, I swear! Anyway: on with Renee hacking and Bell attacking, Loki forgetting everything and Charles trying to understand. Bonus points for Tony throwing another fit! Wooh! Maybe a little Pepper and Tony fluff…IDK this is gonna be a weird chapter. Maybe. IDK. I write what I want!**

**Disclaimer: Death to those who oppose the mighty MARVEL!**

"I need my own tower," Tony complained for umpteenth time. He glared out at the city nightlife. Most people were asleep by now but Pepper was working later – very late – and Tony wasn't one to leave a lady alone at night.

"Then build one," Pepper replied without looking up from the papers she was studying.

"Ugh! It's too much work! I have to design it…and then pay people to build it…and come up with a bigger and better plan for how it should look…it's absolutely exhausting!" Tony complained. He was just being lazy and he knew it. From the look Pepper gave him, she knew it as well.

"I'm sure you can handle it, Mr. Stark," she said, going all 'Mr. Stark' on him.

"That's it!" Tony exclaimed.

Pepper rolled her eyes, way too familiar with Tony's eccentricities to be surprised by anything he said or did anymore.

"Aren't you going to ask what 'it' is?" Tony asked slightly perturbed that no one had jumped in excitement for him.

"Do tell, Tony, what is 'it'?" Pepper finally asked after making him squirm for a while.

"_You _can design it!" Tony said, completely satisfied.

"I don't think that's a good–"

"But why not? It's a perfect idea," Tony said with certainty.

"Yes, remember the last building I designed, Tony?" Pepper asked. Tony, knowing what was coming, heaved a dramatic sigh and walked back towards the piano bench he had been sitting on. "Do you remember, Tony? I got 12% of it."

"That was completely different!" Tony argued. Pepper just smirked. "Please, Pepper: I need a better tower and who else to design a bigger and better tower than you! You who designed the first one! You probably know exactly how to improve it," Tony tried. Flattery usually worked. Why wasn't it working?

"You know what I want," Pepper said.

Oh. Well. How much did Tony want this building? Was he willing to give Pepper what she wanted? Did he really _need _that new tower? Was it really that bad that his previous STARK tower was now swarming with SHIELD and Avengers? Maybe he would try flattery one more time…

"Pepp," he complained again. He turned her chair so she was facing him and Tony pleaded. Cue puppy dog eyes and begging. It usually worked.

"Tony," pepper stated back with a glint of mischief in her eye. "You know what I want."

"But Pe-e-e-e-eppe-e-e-er!" Tony complained again, still with the kicked puppy expression.

Just then a SHIELD agent walked into the room. "Sir," he said.

God. Just the moment to walk in. "What?" Tony asked, exasperated. Maybe he really did need that new building.

"Fury needs you at the base right away," the agent said.

Tony turned back to Pepper who was still sitting and looking at him with an amused look to her, "Fine. You can have your name on the lease," Tony said grumpily.

Pepper leaned forward to give him a kiss, "I'll get right on that, Mr. Stark, but right now you are needed elsewhere."

"Ugh!" Tony groaned, "You are so _sexy_ right now!"

Pepper just continued her paperwork.

…

"Somebody, somewhere has managed to hack into our system," Fury stated, practically growling. This was not supposed to happen. They were supposed to have _the most_ high-tech equipment at SHIELD and here they were getting hacked as easily as a simple cooking website! It was frustrating.

"That's amusing," Tony stated, leaning back in his chair and turning it this way and that.

"unless you call all of 'phase 2's' old plans, The Avengers, and _your _files open to whoever it is funny, then yes, this is hilarious," Fury deadpanned.

Tony gave the director a fake little laugh and said, "Well, they can't be that good: they got caught, didn't they?"

"Not caught, per se," Fury said, "We know they're there but we can't do anything about it."

"So why am I here?" Tony asked. He knew perfectly well why he was there but he was still sore about the whole 'we need Iron Man, not Tony Stark' shtick.

"Why do you think, Stark?" Fury growled. This needed to get done and quickly before anything really destructive got into the wrong hands. After all: SHIELD didn't just deal with The Avengers and a few weapons…

"Fine, fine, fine," Stark said, waving a hand, "I'll fix it for you, just give me a second."

…

"What does it say, Renee? Read it to me," Bell hissed, still clutching his throat with her diamond hand.

Renee cleared his throat, even though he couldn't die he still felt pain, "Basically," he coughed again, "Basically it says that that man, Loki-"

"That worm…" Bell interrupted, angrily.

Renee rolled his eyes. If anyone in this duo had a right to be angry it was Renee. Bell had never been faithful to her husband, Senet, and definitely didn't deserve to try and be faithful to him now, in death. Renee had lost his daughter: his absolute last living relative. He had lost the most precious person in the world, the person he had raised and cared for, gone to any expense to make sure she got the best and she was taken care of before anyone else. If anyone in this group had the right to be angry it was he.

"Loki," Renee continued, "Was taken back to his planet to be punished-"

"Tortured, I do hope," Bell growled, hand tightening around his neck. Renee coughed and sputtered and felt as if he were about to dry-heave before Bell noticed what she was doing and loosened her grip.

Renee was angry – he was grieving and overwhelmed with sadness – but he had grown up now. He knew that if he killed that man, Loki, he was no better than Loki himself. _Somebody _had to love Loki, whether it be his mother on that far-off planet or someone he had met here on earth: someone would be as stricken as Renee himself had been when he had found out about his daughter if he killed Loki. Renee didn't want to be that person anymore.

"Renee," Bell's harsh rasp broke him out of his reverie, "Continue."

Renee internally glared at her but said, "Sent back to his planet to be punished but was found back on earth a few months ago. It says his sentence was paid in full and he was let go to live on earth."

"He isn't done with his punishment until I'm done with him," Bell screeched as her hand encasing his neck tightened once more and the knife she had been holding poked through his skin on his shoulder. Renee hissed in pain and slight annoyance but started coughing when her hand tightened again. "Continue."

"It," Renee cleared his throat, "It just says he lived in Oswego at an apartment on… 17th street."

"Perfect!" Bell exclaimed, "What else does it say?"

"Well," Renee said, scrolling through the large file when his computer suddenly and completely shut down.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Bell screeched before Renee could say anything.

"I – I have no idea, ok?" Renee rasped as Bell's hand squeezed his throat.

"You little-" Bell screeched.

"Look, we've got what we need, ok? We know where he lives – what more do you want?" Renee demanded as he tried prying off her fingers. In reality he knew exactly what had happened, after all: in this moment, this point in time, he was a genius above all geniuses. Somebody had shut them down and kicked them out of their database. It helped that Renee hadn't done anything against it when he saw it starting when they first opened Loki's files.

"Fine, this'll still work, Griffith. You'll still help me," Bell whispered, fierce and menacing again. She picked him up by his neck and threw him off his chair. Renee hit the floor hard but got up and walked into his room without a word. He was an expert at hiding pain now, even the pain splitting his head apart – a side effect of his mutation.

…

"We need someone over at Loki's apartment, now!" Fury barked when Tony had relayed the message that whoever had hacked their database only opened one file: Loki's.

"Fury, don't you think we should tell Thor?" Maria Hill asked as she rushed past Fury to organize a team to make it over to Loki's.

"Maybe," Fury consented, "I just don't want him to break anything important in his haste to get over to Loki's."

"I'll tell him!" Tony volunteered. Anything to get out of here. After he told Thor he could easily escape back to Pepper and later say that he thought he was no longer needed.

Fury cast his one eye upon Tony, seeing straight through Tony's reason to volunteer. "Fine, but only because he's currently in your tower."

"I'm on it, sir," Tony said with a wink and a mock salute.

…

"You don't remember it anymore?" Lill asked, curiously.

"I remember it happened but…I erased what actually happened. I just know the basics of what happened, I don't remember any details," Loki said.

"But that's all you erased right?" Lill asked, "Like, you still remember dinner with my parents right?"

Loki grimaced, "Ah, yes, I still remember that one."

Lill grinned, "Good, I didn't want to be the only one who had to suffer through that dinner."

"Though…" Loki paused.

"What?"

"It's tricky…I, more than likely, erased other things along with those memories. I don't know what I all lost," Loki admitted.

"Well, maybe I can help you remember the good things," Lill said, concerned.

Just then Thor burst into their apartment with four SHIELD agents in tow. "BROTHER!"

"What are you doing here, Thor?" Loki asked, more exasperated than anything.

"You are well?" Thor asked, ignoring the question and still speaking louder than necessary.

"Of course – Thor what is the problem?" Loki asked just as two of the SHIELD agents were shot through the head, visors splintering and blood seeping through the helmet.

**OOOOOHHHHHHH! I'M EVIL, BRO! YEAH STUFF'S GETTING SERIOUS, NOW!**

**Anyway: review like crazy! Let's get to 73! That's the magic number, I've decided. If any of you read my other story, you'll understand and you're awesome!**

**Phantom**


	17. Chapter 17

**Eh-hem. So according to the laws of Fan Fiction dot Net…(I have to do it like that ;) ) I, and any other author for that matter, am not allowed to post an author note under the guise of a chapter. So really I just wanted to ask you all a pretty serious question which will determine the life and death of several important characters in this story so…The point is I'm about to write about four sentences of a chapter followed by another author note because you would be seriously upset if I just continued on the way I was going to and you would have all cried. Literally. I'm being serious here, for once, so if you value the lives of a few important/semi-important characters and the mental stability/life of one Loki Odin-Laufeyson you have to vote no joke.**

Tony slouched in his chair. The plan had been to escape the dreaded mission and go back to canoodling with Pepper. It was late, he was tired, and didn't want to deal with any of Loki's crap but here he was, anyway, dealing with Loki and his crap.

He blinked tiredly at the screens showing the video feed of Loki's apartment and saw Thor and the SHIELD agents burst into Loki's apartment just as Loki and Lillian were talking about dinner…or something.

"BROTHER!" Tony flinched away from the speakers that broadcasted Thor's overly-loud voice.

"What are you doing here, Thor?" he heard Loki ask at a much more normal volume.

Ton rolled his eyes and leaned back, swiveling his chair around. He was bored. He was tired. He didn't want to deal with –

Two shots rang out from the audio feed and shouts of surprise and anger quickly followed. "What the –" Tony swiveled back around to see two of the agents down and another one with a bleeding shoulder.

Tony really didn't want to deal with this now.

**Geez, Tony, you're so insensitive sometimes! Anyway, remember the gravity of this question no joke, ok? Literally you have to state your opinion. If you don't say anything I won't know and I'm going to go super drastic and everybody you know and love in this story will most likely die or go insane (as per original plan). So speak your mind: should I continue you with: little angst, semi-angst, angst, super angst, and ABOSOLUTE CRYING YOURSELF TO SLEEP ANGST? So yeah, seriously speak up or else.**

**Phantom, brotha!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Alright so I'm a little bit excited for these next few chapters because some serious stuff is seriously gonna go seriously down. Seriously. And the general outcry was that you wanted some pretty serious angst! So get ready for some serious angst and righteous, burning anger and justice, a little scuffle and some tears. **

Loki watched as blood seeped out of the helmets of the SHIELD agents and, in morbid curiosity, cocked his head to one side as he wondered how much blood a mortal Midgardian contains. The life of a Midgardian always seemed so flighty to Loki – quick, a rush of emotion ad sensation that was gone just as quickly as it had come about.

Lillian's small shriek pulled Loki back to reality and he sprang into action – mortal lives are quick, easily put to an end and even though it didn't seem like it; Lillian was as mortal as the next person. Loki grabbed Lill's hand and pulled her off the couch, shot Thor and meaningful look, and teleported Thor, Lill, the remaining SHIELD agents, and himself back to the base he had seen in Thor's mind.

Thor roared when he saw the two dead agents and swung his hammer in an anticipatory circle, looking for the evil foe who had struck down two of his comrades. He had come just in time but he was still unable to do any actual protecting it seemed, as he glared down at the blood seeping across the rug.

Thor distantly heard Lill's shriek and, unsure if it was because of pain or surprise, whipped around to see if there was finally something he could defeat and defend him and his loved ones from. All that greeted Thor was the sight of Loki looking at Thor in that way – that way that meant, when they were younger, "I'm about to do the right thing but it's not smart and may end up hurting me – please help," but now, now after all this time not seeing eye to eye and not understanding each other, avoiding each other; he couldn't be sure.

Seconds after doubting his brother Thor felt that tug on his very being, the tug that was time and space bending to Loki's will, the tug that would bring them to safety. He had only felt this magic upon him once or twice in the past because it was, as Loki had once explained to him, extremely draining – especially if one was teleporting more than just oneself.

As he – barely – managed to land everyone on their feet with all their body parts in the right place, not to mention still attached, Loki felt the magic energy drain from him faster than he thought possible. He hadn't ever teleported more than two people before and this was – this was painful. He stumbled a bit but straightened himself to the best of his ability. He had apparently not done as well as he had thought because suddenly the world was tilting precariously to the side and there was a roar in his ears. He couldn't see anything for the blackness inking his vision and his thoughts were clouded. Suddenly a pair of large, powerful hands were grasping his shoulders and shaking him, a voice yelling something right in his ear, something he should know…something that would help him. He struggled to hear it but he was _so _tired.

"Loki!" the voice belonging to the hands shouted at him from miles and miles away.

The world was so off-kilter and he couldn't even see anything anymore to steady himself on. His vision grew darker as more pitch black ink poured onto his vision, soothing, in a dark, sweet way.

"Loki…take my magic…you did it before…" the voice said again. It echoed across time and space and reverberated through Loki's skull a few times before he could make sense of the syllables.

The inky darkness was swallowing him up and Loki wanted to close his eyes but as soon as the words pierced through his foggy mind he latched onto it. Take his energy. Take his energy. Something, some deep, self-preservation instinct in him dredged up the very last iota of magic left in his drained body and started drinking greedily on the ocean of energy that was Thor.

Lill watched eyes wide as Thor shook Loki, trying to make him open his eyes, move – breathe. As soon as they had landed in the SHIELD base Loki had tripped and started falling, slowly, slowly as if he were trying to catch himself, to the side. Thor had grabbed his arms and started yelling at the SHIELD employees staring doe-eyed at the situation before them to get a doctor. When Thor had turned back to Loki he had started shaking Loki and commanding him in a voice that sounded more like a plea or a sob to, "Breathe, brother! Wake up! BREATHE!"

Lill gasped, "He's not BREATHING?!" She screeched and her voice rose an octave with each syllable. Surely this was just an allusion of death – Loki wasn't really dead. He wasn't. He wouldn't leave Lill alone after…after those two agents had been killed right in front of her.

"Loki! Take my energy, you've done it before!" Thor started yelling suddenly.

Thor didn't have magic. Loki had specifically told her that Thor couldn't use magic. Loki had explained to her that he was one of the few who could use magic in the war-happy society he had grown up in.

"Loki," Lill cried softly. She swiped furiously at her tears and glared at Loki's body. Lill didn't cry in front of people she didn't know. She wouldn't. Besides…Loki wasn't dead, right?

Suddenly Loki's hand shot up and gripped Thor's bicep so tightly the tendons in his hand stood out more than ever. "Loki!" Thor yelled, happily. He wasn't dead. He wasn't dead.

Loki gasped loudly and his whole body jerked up as if he were breaking out of deep, dark water. His eyes searched wildly until they settled on Lill, looking relived, confused, and furious all at the same time.

**XxX**

**Ok so sorry for doing this to you all but I have this monumental road block in my mind and so I'm just going to finish this chapter and starting fresh will help out – trust me, I'm a professional. Ok. I'm a professional in my mind, but I know what I need to do to make myself work, ok? Sorry for the long wait – really busy! K Bye!**

**Are we humans or are we dancers, Phantom?**


	19. Chapter 19

**Ok. So. I'm back. Kind of. So, just remember that you all did ask for some serious angst. **

**Disclaimer: no.**

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S GONE?!" Bell screeched as she pulled at her hair.

"I mean they disappeared, Abella," Renee said as he tried to slowly edge away from the wrathful woman. Renee really hadn't had any idea what had happened: one minute the target had been in the room and the next minute he, along with everyone else in the room, had disappeared into thin air. "He's an alien – he can probably do what he wants."

"You _said _we could get him here!" Bell turn on her heel to face Renee who had successfully gotten at least ten feet away from the absolutely hell bent banshee-girl.

"We _would _have gotten him if you had taken my suggestion and just shot him first!" Renee answered equal parts exasperated and nervous for his own well-being.

"HE DESERVES TO DIE!" Bell screamed, her throat getting dry and rough from all her frustrated yelling. She couldn't let this go – she couldn't. She needed to avenge her husband – she loved him. She had loved him! In her own way…she _never _hurt him. That alien was a monster and deserved the worst of fates.

Bell paced up and down the alleyway she had run to in frustration. This was supposed to go according to plan – all according to plan – but it wasn't. Why wasn't the plan working?! Was something wrong with the plan? The – alien – thing must have had some kind of mutation, or a superpower, and that's how it must have escaped. There's no way they had just disappeared out of thin air! It can't happen that way! It knew she was coming for him tonight – he had only stayed to tease her, egg her on. And it worked. She was frustrated beyond belief. Bell screamed and kicked a trash can over, sending it flying across the dank alleyway and causing it to crash into the brick wall of the convenience store bordering the alley.

She needed a better plan – this wouldn't do. She wouldn't let the alien escape again. He _deserved_ the worst. She needed a foolproof plan and she had just the person to concoct such a plan. "ReyRey…" she panted. She had worked herself up into a fit and was breathing heavely, breath sending little puffs of air into the night. "I need a better plan, one that won't fail me. Can you do that for me baby?"

She turned and saw Renee standing at the mouth of the alleyway, leaning against the apartment building and rubbing his head. She couldn't tell if it was the side effect of his mutation or he was just supremely annoyed with her. She couldn't really care either way. She needed a plan from a genius mind and his was the only one in the vicinity. "Renee, honey," she purred again. If this flattery didn't work she always could rely on her diamond form to do some work for her.

"_It's not a switch, Abella!_" Renee exclaimed, angrily. He turned and stalked towards her, eyebrows drawn down in a fierce frown. The lights from the street lights cast sharp shadows on his face, making him look hollow and vicious – a wolf stalking his prey.

But Bell is not prey.

"Then what is it, Renee?" Bell asked back in a low hiss. She clenched her fists at her sides and lifted her chin – though the look on Renee's face intimidated her she was not one to back down. She was antagonized and now that someone – Renee, in this case – was challenging her she was going for the kill.

Renee gave her nothing but a wordless snarl and whipped away from her. She could visibly see him pull himself back together – he shook his head as a dog would shake off water, combed a hand through his golden hair, and folded his hands behind his back. "It's not a toy, nor should it be used as one," he finally said in more cultured tones.

But Abella wasn't done yet. She had been set off and wasn't letting it go, now. "But it _is _a tool! We should use it when we can!" She said stomping her now diamond-foot, leaving a sizeable dent in the concrete.

"Am _I _just a tool, then? To be used only when useful, Bell?" Renee retorted, waving a hand sarcastically through the air. He had always been better at controlling his anger than Bell had and even when being slapped in the face with comments like that he still kept a level voice and head.

"I never said that," Bell growled and Renee rolled his amber eyes, pacing towards the mouth of the alley again, "I need your mutation for this Renee. Can't you just do me this one favor after all these years?" Bell glared fiercely at the back of Renee's head as he stood and refused to turn towards her.

"Why? Why should I do this for you, Bell?" Renee said, finally turning around, "Who are we to decide this man's fate?"

Bell screamed to the sky, pushed beyond the edge of frustration. Force it was, then.

**xXx **

"Is it at all possible that whoever shot those agents were only after _those two agents?_" Lill asked from the corner of the tension-filled conference room. All the Avengers, a woman with neat, dark hair named Maria Hill, Director Fury, and Loki were gathered.

"Slim to none," answered the red headed agent, Natasha. She said it with such robotic certainty Lillian couldn't help but immediately take her word for it. She was an experienced assassin, wasn't she?

"Unfortunately, darling, they were most likely after our very own; Loki Odinson," Tony answered flippantly as he spun around and around on his chair. Lillian could see from the corner of her eye the tension that appeared in Loki's shoulders when called by his last name.

"Why?" she asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Tony asked.

"Anybody who knew that Loki was behind the attack in New York –" Clint started.

"Which _should _be no one," Bruce interrupted, frustrated that society didn't follow simple commands and rules.

"Would want revenge or some kind of 'just' payment for whomever or whatever he directly or indirectly destroyed," finished Natasha, again with the same confident certainty.

There was a moment of silence as everyone in the room thought on this.

"Who would know?" Captain Rogers finally asked. "I thought only the few who had seen Loki in Stuttgart knew anyone was even in charge of the alien invasion."

"There's this awesome knew thing, Cap'," Tony said, "It's called the internet. Anything that goes on there spreads like wildfire."

Steve glared at Tony as Fury continued, "It would be best if you just left, Loki."

Lillian stood up and tried to make herself look fierce, "He's not going anywhere without me." She glared viciously at everyone in the room. "Not without me," she repeated.

**Isn't that lovely? Lillian wants to stay with Loks! YAY! Ok anyway: please review it's awesome and yeah. Before this story is over I want to get into the triple digits!  
Anyway: so I figured something out: when writing and listening to music it is easier to write if you are listening to music that you can't sing along too. Crazy right?! Hehehe… Go Trans-Siberian Orchestra! **

**PHANTOM**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

**Woah! Isn't it crazy, guys? I'm back! WHOOAAAHHH! RIGHT!? Well, I was never gone, just taking my dandy old time. I literally had no time, people, no time. No time at all. Anyway so, stuff's really going down, now. ANGST WILL COMMENSE, I PROMISE! By the way: I don't know if any of you forgot that the X-Men were present but…I did. xD Ehehe sorry. So I'm including them now.**

**Disclaimer: we coexist with Marvel but only because Marvel allows us to live – not because we chose to.**

Loki glared out the window of Stark tower into the disturbingly bright New York night. After the conference and Lill's sudden proclamation Fury had ordered Stark to have Loki and Lill stay at Stark tower until they sorted things out enough for them to return to their apartment. Loki wasn't sure he wanted to go back there. They had been so easily found – so easily attacked. So easy…it was all too easy. Loki had known right away who was attacking them: someone he had hurt during his invasion. He couldn't remember what happened during the invasion…but he remembered that there were a lot of people killed and everyone thought it was his fault. He remembered the Chitauri forced him to attack earth but he could remember why or how. He couldn't remember any of it but he could remember desperately wanting to forget. He wasn't about to try and get something back he had so willingly thrown away.

He thought he had gotten rid of everything from that life but here it was: still coming to attack him. He couldn't have anything – he couldn't have happiness, he couldn't have stability, he couldn't have love, it appeared. He supposed it made sense: what is chaos if not instability? Is there room in chaos for happiness? Is there room in chaos for love? Chaos is destruction and confusion – who loves destruction? Who is happy with confusion? He is the god of chaos, god of mischief, bringer of ragnarok – the end. There is no room for happiness in a world of chaos. Why did he ever think he could get away and live normally?

Loki sighed quietly and leaned his head against the glass and as he put his fingertips on the window he heard – more like sensed the person behind him. He could feel the person's gaze on him. He hadn't exactly been hoping for company tonight but said anyway, "Can I help you?" with slightly less bite than usual.

"So you're the guy that wacked up half of New York," the person stated in a gravelly voice. Loki could practically hear the person fold their arms and widen their stance in a way they probably thought menacing.

Loki, using a greater amount of self-control than usual, refrained from rolling his eyes and turned towards the man addressing him. The man was gruff, a grizzly-looking beard covering his strong jaw and, as predicted, his arms were crossed over his chest. He was quite a lot shorter than Loki himself, but stocky and Loki could…sense something about him that was…different, wrong and not original. "'Wacked up'," Loki repeated as he raised a cynical eyebrow at the dark haired man. "What crude terminology. If by 'wacked up' you mean destroyed or flattened, then yes: I was the figure head of the army that 'wacked up' New York."

"What was the goal?" the man asked.

The goal? Loki didn't know. Maybe he had known – once, before he had made himself to forget – but now he didn't know. Had there even _been_ a goal? Did the Chitauri just want distruction? Why did they want Loki to lead the attack? It's not like he had a particularly successful track record. No, if the Chitauri wanted to have someone successful lead their attack they should have coerced Thor, not Loki. What was the goal?

**xXx**

Logan watched the man, god, thing, as he turned and spoke to him. He was tall, very tall, at least six feet and Logan could practically smell the narcissism and real power that the man – Loki, he remembered – practically exuded.

"What was the goal?" He asked. Logan knew all about goals. Throughout his life – which had been lifetimes and lifetimes longer than natural due to his healing factor – he had been used as an assassin, a weapon, a mercenary, an animal that killed anything and everything. He was always given a goal: a target or an objective and that was all he would need. He just needed the goal of the mission and he could handle everything else. What was the goal of destroying New York? What was supposed to be the actual ending of his attack? Was there someone in particular Loki had wanted to kill? Was there something in particular he needed to take that was here? If so, why use such excessive force? Things could be done with far more finesse.

Logan watched Loki carefully in the following second or so of the question. With his heightened, animal-like senses he could usually tell what someone was thinking or feeling but with Loki…he couldn't get anything. Logan didn't have a clue as to what Loki was thinking as he flippantly answered, "I didn't have one."

Logan wanted to growl and attack Loki but knew that probably wasn't the smartest course of action here. How could you _want _to do something like this for no reason? There had to be a reason: there's always an end goal, an objective.

Before Logan could protest or reply Loki made a dismissive gesture with his hand and turned back to lean against the window and look towards the New York night.

Logan glared at the man but knew he wouldn't get any answers. Maybe Storm finally had some answers after all her reading she had been doing.

**xXx**

Storm sat in her room – it was late, but she was caught up reading – on the bed with the side table light illuminating the particularly engrossing Norse mythology book she had found. There was a story in this book she hadn't come across yet: it was about Loki and one of his supposed children, a girl named Hel. From what Storm had heard from Thor a lot of these stories were a little off base while some were completely untrue. Storm couldn't be sure if Loki actually had children or not or if he even knew of these people who Midgardian lore named his children – let alone if these people were even real at all was a complete mystery.

It blew her mind that they now had confirmed knowledge of intelligence beyond earths' own. The scientists of earth were just scratching the surface of their own planet and yet they had already reached out into another dimension and planet. Weapons were being synthesized from the alien technology, medicines were being tested and extracted from plants and small animals Thor had brought with him down to earth and with all this new knowledge…Storm realized…earth hardly knew much of anything. Floating around out on a different dimension was a cure for cancer – somewhere out there they were advanced enough that earth would view their technology as magic. Out there – Asgard, apparently – people used _real _magic. Earth practically knows nothing.

A light knock on her door startled her out of her reverie. "Come in," she called quietly.

Through her door stepped Logan and she could tell he was troubled, just by the way he held himself. "What is it?" She asked. She kept her voice quiet, if only for the sake that it was nighttime.

"You've been reading up on Loki, right?" he asked, his gravelly voice catching on to her quietness and becoming quiet as well. He shifted uncomfortable by the door and she motioned for him to come sit with her on the flat grey sheets.

"Yes…I had been hoping to get some understanding on him before I confronted him myself," she said as she gestured slightly exasperatedly at the stacks and stacks of books and news clippings. She brushed her shite hair out of her clear blue eyes and sighed. "It's long work."

"I tried talking to him today," Logan commented as he eyed the books next to the side table.

Storm laughed lightly, "How well did that go?" Everyone knew of Logan's short temper and if there was anything she had learned from the books she had read it was that if you ever wanted any straight answers one would have to be decades and decades more patient than Logan was. Loki was a trickster and the acclaimed god of Lies, Trickery, Mischief, Chaos, and in some books: Fire. He wasn't a likely person to just give up their inner wants just by someone asking them to.

"He frustrates me, 'Ro," Logan growled. "I asked him what the purpose of the attack was and, do you know what he said, 'Ro? He said he didn't have one. What kind of sick bastard does that kind of thing?" Logan shook his head and leaned his elbows on his knees.

"You did hear how he wasn't actually behind the attack on New York, didn't you?" Storm asked. She only knew because she had picked a few locks to get a few 'classified documents' that told the whole story of Loki being coerced into the attack. While these documents may or may not have cleared him on his attack on New York they also had information on his potential genocide of that other world – Jotunhiem, its name was?

"What do you mean?" Logan asked.

"He was forced to lead the attack on New York – when he said that _he_ had no goal when he attacked New York, I think he means he really didn't have anything to do with attacking New York. I think he was trying to hint that he wasn't the one who actually commanded the attack," Storm explained.

"He had nothing to do with the attack, at all?"

"Not as far as I've read," Storm said, "But that doesn't exactly clear his name – he is the god of mischief and chaos. He did try committing genocide on another planet before he fell under the control of the creatures that actually lead the attack on Earth. I'm just trying to figure out how best to approach him about that…and I want to know about the real attackers. Who really did this? SHIELD thinks that the aliens that actually attacked are all defeated and Thor told me that he and his father had taken care of them but something must still be haunting Loki – more than just PTSD. From what Charles has told me and what I've seen on the video feed…something is still wrong."

"Are you sure?" Logan asked, "He is an alien-god thing. This might be normal for him. This is all a little bigger than me, 'Ro, as soon as this business is done…the happier I'll be," Logan commented suddenly as he, too, ran a hand through his hair. "I have enough problems without dealing with Loki's as well."

Storm nodded, this was definitely bigger than them all – especially now with _more _killers on the loose.

**WHOA GUYS! I just posted a chapter within a week of the last one! Crazy, right?! It started wandering at the end, I know it did, I was there and I'm getting tired and when that happens I stop making sense…so. Yeah. Comment like crazy guys! Seriously triple digits for my review box and literally my life will be complete! Go forth!**

**Phantom**


	21. Chapter 21

**Sorry I haven't responding to reviews but I'm going to do it this chapter, I promise! So, you know, ask and review away! You have a question? I have an answer! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel, ok?**

Renee gasped as he tried to get more air into his burning lungs. He had run. He was a coward for it, too. He knew he should have tried to talk Bell out of it but she wouldn't be moved. He had run faster than he ever had before. Bell hadn't caught him yet, which was a good sign. Bell's mutation made her stronger but it didn't necessarily make her faster. If Renee kept his pace he might actually be able to get away.

…

"Are you ok?" Lill whispered as her door at Stark Tower swung open and Loki padded quietly into the room. He didn't make a response, though, and just closed the door behind him. He stood in front of the door and through the darkness Lill could see his head was stooped. He slid down to the floor and heaved a long-suffering sigh. He put his head in his hands and refused to look up, "Loki," Lill whispered again. When Loki made no move to get up, Lill got up and walked over to the door. She slid down next to him and wiggled as close as she could. She stayed silent and waited for him to make the first move.

It took quite a few minutes but finally Loki put his arm around Lill and sighed again, "I have a headache," he said simply.

"Since when do gods get headaches?" Lill scoffed knowing this wasn't the reason for his melancholy.

"They don't," He replied.

"Then what's the prob – what do you mean?" Lill asked. If gods didn't get headaches…either Loki was playing with her or…maybe he was just really tired.

"My head Lill – I can't think…I just – give me a minute," Loki said brokenly. He rolled onto his knees and walked towards the small bathroom connected to their room. Lill thought she saw him sway slightly but couldn't be sure.

Lill frowned after him but got up as well. She walked towards the bed and crawled under the boring grey covers. She could wait Loki out – he would tell her eventually.

…

Renee had run for what seemed like years now and he collapsed. He pressed his back against the bus stop bench and sucked air in greedily. He was pretty sure he had lost Bell a while ago but couldn't be sure. He just hoped a bus actually stopped here. It was early morning now, the sun just barely coming over the horizon casting everything in cold greys and blues for the short moments before golden light would pour down the city and paint it in colors not usually seen.

Renee glanced around nervously. The city was coming to life but a bus had yet to stop by. Maybe was more people came out of their homes and apartments and went to their jobs and filled the streets Bell would be more cautious about who saw her. Maybe he would get away.

God, since when had his life turned into a giant overly-dramatic horror story? Killing, kidnapping, torture and just general violence had become the norm around Bell. It was getting ridiculous. Sure Renee had gotten a little roughed up in the past but it was never inflicted by Bell and was almost never done with the intentions of forcing him to use his mutation. He didn't know what to do anymore and wasn't sure what was right.

…

Lill frowned rather grumpily at Loki's back. It turned out she couldn't wait Loki out after all. Loki had come back into the room and laid down next to her and just as she was about to ask what was wrong Loki had rolled over and Lill was left staring into his sleeping face, pulled into a grimace even in sleep. What was she supposed to do? Wake him up? Yeah right! Even though he was frowning he wasn't thrashing or screaming and he was actually, bless her soul, asleep. It practically counted as a miracle these days if he got a wink of sleep at all!

But she, herself, couldn't fall asleep. Thor was in the building wasn't he? Maybe he would have some answers.

"House?" Lill asked quietly.

"My name is JARVIS, Miss Mueller," the house replied.

Lill grinned at the wall and said, "Whatever you say, dear."

"How may I help you, Miss Mueller?" the house asked.

"Is Mr. Stark around? Better yet: is the great blundering hunk of blonde Norse god around?" Lill asked. She had to admit that Loki's ranting may have skewed her view a bit and made her make her own early assumptions about Thor before even knowing him but…she didn't really care. From what Loki had told her, even if any of it had been an exaggeration, Thor was still a bit of a dingdong.

"Mr. Stark is in his workshop and Mr. Odinson is atop the tower with Miss Foster," the house replied, totally disregarding the mini rant she had used whilst describing Thor.

"Do I want to interrupt Thor and his canoodling or do I just want to talk to Mr. Stark instead?" Lill wondered aloud.

"I cannot tell you, Miss Mueller," the house said.

"Well that's good 'cause I wasn't asking you, anyway," Lill answered. Lill looked up at the ceiling and sighed, "I guess I don't really want to walk in on canoodling anyway," Lill heaved a sigh, "House, can you tell me how to get to Mr. Stark?"

The house heaved an annoyed sigh of its own after being referred to as house again but consented, "Try to refrain from being overly loud as most of the tower is asleep now," it added after giving her directions to the lab.

Lill raised an eyebrow at the wall and smirked, "Yeah, ok,"

It took some time, and a after sharp command from her to JARVIS saying, "TURN OFF THE LIGHTS THE OTHER PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING!" she stumbled about in the darkness for quite a time before Black Widow, as she's called, appeared out of nowhere and silently pointed towards the elevator, but Lill eventually got to the workshop.

"The moment…of truth," Lill whispered to herself as she asked JARVIS to open the workshop door.

"Of course, Miss Mueller," the house replied after the house had asked permission from Stark.

The door slid open with a satisfyingly quiet mechanical swish and Lill strode into the spacious workshop trying to look as regal as possible wearing her pajamas and shark slippers.

…

Tony hadn't really been working on anything when JARVIS told him that Loki's girlfriend had been standing outside his workshop but immediately made it seem as if he had been. It made people feel as if they were interrupting something important and therefore didn't waste time with pointless talk.

He had seen the girl before but really hadn't been expecting her to show up in his workshop at two in the morning wearing sweatpants and a Taylor Swift concert T-shirt and shark slippers that looked as if two baby sharks were swallowing her feet whole. But he _was _Tony Stark and if Tony Stark was one thing it was indifferent. So he just glanced over at her and continued pretending to be busy and asked, "What can I do, Pixie Girl?"

"Really? Pixie Girl?" the girl asked, raising an eyebrow, "This coming from the guy at least five inches shorter than my boyfriend."

"Aha! But his height is not yours', now is it? And so: from now on you are Pixie, my girl," Tony said as he raised a finger as he said, 'Aha'.

Pixie rolled her eyes but otherwise didn't really seem to care about the crack at her height. Tony stared at the girl, waiting for her to speak but she just stared right on back. Tony wasn't really sure what to do, but felt compelled to keep looking at her so he kept staring right on through. What did she want? Eventually the awkwardness became so intense Tony had to break the silence, as he felt he couldn't even breathe for all the awkwardness floating around the room, "So what brings you to my workshop at this late hour, Pixie?"

"Well," Pixie answered, finally blinking, For Gods' sake, what had that been about? "Well, I came about Loki."

"What? Did you lose him?" Tony asked, aiming for nonchalance but actually worried. "JARVIS, pull up Loki," he commanded a small hint of panic creeping into his voice. He had lost track of Loki. He had lost track of _Loki. LOKI. _

The Pixie rolled her eyes and said, "Of course I haven't," but was cut sort as a screen showing live footage of Loki and Pixie's room came up to show Loki thrashing and screaming on the floor, where he must have fallen from the bed. "For the love of –" the Pixie half cried half whined as she zipped out of the workshop.

"What is going on?!" Tony yelled after her. This didn't look good in the least.

**Hey guys. Sorry. Yeah. So sorry.**

**Vikishus: I'M SO JEALOUS OF YOU RIGHT NOW YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW!**

**Fan girl 666: Lillian is pretty beast, isn't she? I personally hope she doesn't end up dying but you never know. I did promise some serious angst, did I not? **

**Tamuril2: Worry not, my friend! Our good friend, Renee, is up for some serious angst. I do not feel bad in the least in telling you he does not, in fact, escape Bell's Psycho Train quite yet! Poor dude. Oh well! Lolol Sorry, ReyRey!**

**Star Trek's Q's girl friend: Sorry, bro. First come first serve and everyone else already voted terrible bad bad horrible death angsty ending. But fear not there Is a small twist in the ending that is super obscure but will allow me to come back to this series if I seriously want to. **

**Hey guys! So…I'm not dead. Ummm… sorry. Uh, yeah… Well… Happy New Years? **

**Um.**

**Yeah.**

**So sorry.**

**That is all.**

***CAPE SWISH* PHANTOM *FLIES AWAY ON FLYING MONKEY***


	22. Chapter 22

**Hey guys! What's up? I hope you are all having a good new year and are doing something fun. Take the weekend to go and ski/snowboard/snowmobile! I LOVE WINTER SPORTS! YOU GUYS DON'T EVEN KNOW!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel I just like to pretend that I do. **

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" Renee complained pacing up and down the block. Bell would be here soon and a bus hadn't come yet. This was trouble and he knew it. He didn't know what else to do and wasn't feeling up to jogging to the next bus stop, wherever it may be.

Renee glanced warily about him and made the decision. Just as he started walking briskly further into the city in hopes of finding a bus or a cab he heard Bell's insane laugh float towards him from the end of the block, "Renee!" Bell sang.

Renee glanced at her over his shoulder and cringed: Bell looked awful. Her usually wild black curls were now damp and matted, mangy looking, and her clothes were ripped from run-ins with corners of houses and other obstacles she had decided to overcome to catch up with him. "Leave me alone, Abella," Renee said as calmly as he could. He schooled his features into those of nonchalance and forced his posture to relax – all the while searching and thinking of a way to escape. His physical health was in danger here and he knew it and just as he realized how deep he was in it his mutation kicked in and his thoughts started playing in overdrive. His physical health depended on him getting away from the immediate threat and that threat was Bell.

Just as he started thinking on higher plains, wider plains, Bell's insane laugh filled Renee's ears. "Don't think you can fool me, Renee! I can see your eyes, you coward! You want nothing more than to get out of here. I'll tell you, Renee! I'll tell you how to get out of here completely unharmed!" she called, tauntingly.

Renee growled inwardly at his mutation – almost as if it were a separate being from him – willing it to keep thinking of ways to escape, but it had heard Bell's words and it knew that this would be the best for his survival. And that's all his mutation was really – something that forced his survival. Maybe he was losing control of his mutation, after all: before the invasion he and Bell had traipsed all around the world using his mutation numerous times when it didn't really count and now he couldn't even choose what his thoughts focused on while his mutation was working. He was falling apart. His mutation latched onto her offer and he stopped dead in his tracks even as that tiny, itty bitty part of his brain that wasn't affected by his mutation – the rational part – screamed at his to get the hell out. "How?" he asked, voice dark and deep, gravely with strain as he fought his inner battles.

"All I need," Bell gasped, breathless in her triumph, "All I need, baby, is your cooperation for a few days. After that I promise I will never make contact with you again!"

Renee glared at Bell. He was furious: furious at his mutation for taking this option, furious at himself for being unable to resist, furious at Bell for being a crazy diamond encased mutant, furious that he was going to kill someone, furious that he was going to sink so low…_again. _

Before he could stop himself, his mutation answered for him, "You aren't lying. I can…_see_ that you aren't lying. A few days is all you have, Bell! After that we may never make contact again."

"That's all I need," Bell said triumphantly.

…

"Aren't you supposed to be a genius or something?" Pixie yelled at him as she tried holding down Loki's arms.

"Of course I'm a genius!" Tony scoffed, "Are you insulting me?" he asked as he attempted to hold Loki's legs down.

Loki screamed causing Tony to startle backwards and lost control of his legs and watch as Loki, even in fevered sleep, overpowered the Pixie and freed his arms. He gripped his head and his back arched as Loki gasped and choked.

"JARVIS! Get Thor in here!" Tony commanded as he once again tried to calm the thrashing body so that he wouldn't hurt himself.

"You're just asking for Thor _NOW?!"_The Pixie exclaimed, "I have yet to see anything genius about you!"

"What do you want from me, Pixie? We obviously can't wake him up and unless he starts sleep talking we don't even know what he's dreaming of!" Tony snapped. This was really starting to freak him out.

Tony had heard that Loki wasn't technically responsible for the attack on New York but…after going so long blaming someone for something it was hard to just _stop _hating the guy! He had mixed feelings about the guy: Loki was apparently tortured and mind-raped and then hypnotized into attacking New York after spending how many years in the hands of the beasts who had _actually _attacked New York but…he wasn't exactly making it easy to side with him. Since he had gotten here he had been nothing but cold shoulders and glares.

"Don't you have something that shows us thoughts yet?" The Pixie asked.

"Well I'm sorry I never thought to make a mindreading device – which, I might add, is IMPOSSIBLE!" Tony retorted as he finally just got up and walked a few feet away from the now sweat-covered god lying on the floor, screaming and writhing like no tomorrow.

"BUT YOU'RE A GENIUS! FIGURE IT OUT!" Pixie yelled, "What are you doing?! Get back over here and help me! LOKI! Loki, wake up, hon' you're just dreaming! You're fine! What's wrong?"

"He can't hear you, Pixie!" Tony sneered, now thoroughly pissed at the situation. He watched as the girls brown hair fell over her shoulders and brushed against the gods face as she tried to get him to open his eyes.

"WELL I'M TRYING!" Pixie yelled again. This was obviously killing her inside.

After all this time – it took so long! – it took to get Loki to open up and stop worrying and it was crumbling down again. She was afraid Loki would really lose it soon. Once could only go through so much before they had had enough.

"What's going on here?" Thor boomed from the doorway, rushing into the room.

"Thor!" Tony exclaimed, "Finally!"

"Get your Jane-loving-butt over here, Thor! Help me wake him up!" Pixie shouted at Thor.

"Loki!" Thor shook Loki's shoulders.

Loki had started to shake and his screams seemed continuous now. Tony was surprised the whole tower wasn't gathered in the room already. Loki arched his back and a tremor ran through his whole body before he raised his head and slammed it back into the ground with a sickening crack.

"Loki!" Pixie echoed Thor. Loki had stopped thrashing as soon as he hit his head and Pixie slid her hand under his head. "Loki, open your eyes."

…

It had all come back. Everything. In a big rush he remembered everything. Not only did he remember everything he forced himself to forget from the Chitauri imprisonment and invasion, but he also remembered things he had forced himself to forget from years and years prior. Not only did he remember it but he relived it. All of it.

Loki screamed. He needed to get out of here. It was too much!

"_C'mon Loki! Figure it out!" A voice taunted him. In a way he knew he was only imagining these things and that it wasn't actually happening to his physical body but…it made it almost worse. This way his torturer could do multitudes of other forms of torture that would normally result in death but here, in his mind, only meant pain _beyond _death. _

"_Leave!" Loki commanded. In his mind he was in a wasteland. The air burned his lungs and eyes and the ground was sharp glass. Without shoes Loki was left to completely cut up feet. "Get out!" Loki said, trying to muster his most intimidating and authoritative voice. Unfortunately he had to suck in air to say these words and soon the pain searing in his lungs caused him to fall to his hands and knees, further cutting his skin with the jagged ground. _

"_You are nothing," the voice said calmly back. Suddenly there was a body beside him, one that he suspected belonged to the voice taunting him, and the body kicked him sending him flying much farther then should be possible. The kick audibly broke a few ribs and as he landed on the ground, sliding and grinding his bare back into hamburger meat, he gasped in pain, bringing more poisonous air into his lungs. _

_Loki cried out and writhed in pain._

It was a gentler memory of the mind games they had played with him.

_Young Loki, about fourteen or fifteen by Midgardian standards, walked down a back hall in the palace, an empty one no one ever was in, trying to find a new place to read books without being interrupted by his blundering brother. _

_Just as he turned a corner he ran full on into a guard. "Watch what you're doing!" Loki exclaimed. When you're prince nothing like this is your fault. _

"_I'd just watch it if I were you, Loki," the guard growled as he grabbed the young prince by the arm._

"_It's Prince Loki to you," Loki snapped as he tried to yank his arm out of the man's grasp. The man was unrelenting and Loki said, "Unhand me, guard. Think of what you are doing."_

"_I know full well what I'm doing," the guard grinned a sleazy smile._

_Oh, God._

_Loki knew exactly what was coming. He knew he was…desirable to some men. He had been 'accidentally' brushed by other men from other planets in the past, other guards. He knew _no one ever came back here. _He knew all these things yet…he never thought it would actually come to this._

"_Get away from me," Loki sneered, aiming for confidence. _

"_I don't think so."_

Loki cried out again. That memory had been effectively erased by his younger self and he was just remembering now. Loki had been attacked like that before but…that was the first time. It hurt.

"_Sygin!" Loki called out, terrified as the woman he loved was dragged away from him. "SYGIN!" _

"_Still him," commanded the officer. _

_Two guards came behind Loki and forced him to his knees. "STOP!" Loki yelled. This time he imbued his magic and all the guards were frozen against their will as Loki's magic washed over them. Loki tore himself away from the frozen guards holding him just as chains bound his wrists. "What –" Loki gasped as he felt his magic seep out of him. There was nothing he could do. The guards were released from his magic and Loki was left staring after his lover being dragged from the hall as he writhed from magic withdrawal. _

Loki choked. He knew he wouldn't erase such a memory. Someone else must have. How many memories had been taken from him like this?

_Years later Loki still mourned the girl and certain people – people who had been responsible for the girl, Sygin's, disappearance – were getting tired of it. Later that day Loki stumbled upon Sygin: dead, used, and broken. _

_Loki felt his heart break – ripped from his chest and twisted until it didn't resemble a heart anymore. _

Loki screamed. He felt the love he had lost. He felt his heart turn to stone. He felt himself losing grip of reality. Was there reality anymore? Loki wasn't sure. He wasn't sure he wanted to find out the rest of what he had forgotten.

Loki felt the pain of his life in mere moments and screamed and screamed. He felt his head crack against something hard and suddenly…he was free.

**So. Angst. Hm. That could have been done better. I know it. Sorry guys: I'm tired!  
So this was a longer chapter than usual! Yay!**

**Thank you all for New Years wishes! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**Phantom**


End file.
